JurassiQuest
by animaladventures1314
Summary: Paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant is struggling to financially support his fossil hunting expeditions because of his controversial theories when he is asked to lead a team of several scientists on a quest in a different time period to study dinosaurs. However, things soon go wrong and they eventually discover that things are not what they once seemed.
1. The Orb

**JurassiQuest – Chapter 1: The Orb**

**A/N: Hello guys and gals! The story you are about to read is probably quite different from any other story ever written for fanfiction. I've been brainstorming on this project for a long time since the idea was first proposed to me last December (so that's late 2013). The idea behind this story was given to me by creative fanfiction writer TomSurfing. This story set in a universe/canon all its own, and therefore distinct Jurassic Park cannon (that is, it isn't in the movie, novel, game or comic cannons or "story lines"). However, as the story moves along, many of the characters, concepts and details from the movie, novels and games will be incorporated into this story. What you are about to read is the first story of a three-part trilogy that will take you on an exciting adventure through the world of genetic engineering, paleontology and you'll see how careless actions done by humans can be dangerous in the long run. Please enjoy!**

**A/N 2: Just to be clear, even though the story is rated T, you won't find any profanity, sexual content or other uses of foul language in my story. It is rated T for minor violence.**

**PS. If at anytime I refer to this story as "Jurassic World" it's because that was the initial title for this story. I changed it to JurassiQuest to avoid confusion with the upcoming movie by the same name.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.**

* * *

Dr. Henry Wu stared at the computer screen in one of his laboratories. Why wasn't this program working? This laboratory wasn't much, just a small room inside the large company known as **In**ternational **Gen**etic Technologies, or InGen for short.

InGen was a large bioengineering company located in Palo Alto, California. It was founded by the respectable John Parker Hammond in 2002. InGen's early start was made possible due to support of the Hammond Foundation, the Law Offices of Cowan, Swain and Ross and several Japanese investment firms. Ever since, the results of their projects had been quite revolutionary.

One of their most recent and successful projects was headed by the head geneticist Dr. Henry Wu, and the project involved causing _E. coli_ bacteria – a lab-friendly bacteria often studied in labs around the world that usually produces a stinky odor – to produce wintergreeen-smelling _E. coli_. Dr. Wu and the other scientists at InGen had inserted mint-smelling genetic material into the _E. coli_ bacteria they were experimenting on and were able to get them to emit the pleasant smell. This was the normal work of InGen scientists. But not today.

Today, Dr. Wu was in a small dark laboratory room, sitting in front of his computer screen, typing ferociously. Dr. Henry Wu was an only child from China; he was a slender man of thirty-three. Wu gained early attention from his undergraduate thesis at MIT when he was 23 before he was hired by InGen. Now, for the past ten years, he has been co-head of the geneticist department at InGen.

Since six months, he and his assistants had been working on a new prototype that was quite different than anything ever attempted by a genetic engineering company anywhere in the world; in fact, it wasn't really so much genetic engineering, but as Hammond was Wu's boss, he's have to do anything he requested. For months now, Wu and the others had been trying to decode the mystery of making the mechanism actually work, and they hadn't gotten this close before. Today might be the day the prototype would actually work.

Wu glanced beside him at Raymond "Ray" Arnold sitting beside him, staring at his own monitor. Ray was a thin, bespectacled, African-American man and a chronic worker. He was the chief engineer at InGen, was very experienced with computers and his job mainly consisted of running InGen's computer systems. But over the past six months, he had been assisting Wu with his latest project.

"How's it coming along?" Henry asked.

Arnold sighed. While he took a stick of gum from his pocket and put it in his mouth he said, "If I can just get past these calculations, we'll be on our way."

"Well, you might want to have a look at this."

Arnold leaned over to look at Henry's computer. He grinned. "Yes, that's the calculation. How'd you figure it out?"

"You had a number in the wrong place somewhere between line 001 and 0053. I fixed the equation and I believe it or not, I think we might be able to experiment with the new prototype today."

"It's about time," said a voice from behind them. The two men turned back to watch as Dennis Nedry typed in some numbers into his computer at his desk. He was working on the same project as Wu and Arnold. Nedry was an obese, chief computer programmer at InGen. He wore glasses and sat at a clutter-filled desk littered with computer manuals, candy wrappers, soda cans, straws and even a pizza box from three months ago with more clutter and a slice of cold pizza from a couple of days ago inside. Despite his appearance, like Arnold, he was very intelligent around computers. In fact, he'd been responsible for rigging up the entire InGen computer system.

Ray turned back to the computer. He was about to look back at Nedry when suddenly he realized that his plastic cup with his lemonade was gone. "Henry, have you seen my drink?"

"It was sitting right next to you, wasn't it?"

"Last I saw it was before we left on our break. When we came back a few minutes ago, I had forgotten about it till now."

"No matter," Henry said. He pushed his chair away from the desk. "In just a few moments, we could very well have a working prototype." He, Arnold and Nedry got up from their chairs and walked over to a pair of large and mechanical cylinders about 10 feet away from each other; they were each about four feet tall. And facing toward the center was a ray gun attached to each cylinder. In the center, was an empty space. This is where the "magic" would take place.

There was a light tapping on the door; it must have been the boss, but Wu wanted to be sure.

"Who is it?" Wu asked.

"It's John and Laura," the male voice behind the door said. Wu went over to the door and opened it, allowing John Hammond and Dr. Sorkin to enter the room. As you are already aware, Hammond is the CEO of InGen, and Dr. Laura Sorkin is the company's co-head geneticist. Raised on her family's farm in Arkansas, Dr. Sorkin was a tall scientist of 40 years of age with short blond hair and glasses. She had also been assisting Henry, Nedry and Arnold with the prototype from time to time.

Today, Hammond was as hopeful as ever. This wasn't the first time Wu had opened the door to him so that he could see how the prototype would work, but the others times the prototype was completely unsuccessful. "How's the prototype coming along?"

"We corrected a lot of calculations if that's what you mean," Arnold said. "I just wish this stuff wasn't so complicated. I have other work to do in the other divisions of this facility–"

"You're willing to miss out on what could be one of the grandest opportunities in the history of mankind?" Henry asked. "All the time you've put into this project?"

"This machine's never worked before."

"It needs to work," Dr. Sorkin said. "We need to move to the next step."

After Hammond stepped through the door, a miniature elephant followed in his footsteps. The little creature stood only nine inches high and 12 inches in length, the size of a gopher, a creature straight from Henry's bioengineering department in another part of the facility. The elephant was much like a baby Asian elephant in almost every way except its size. It also had a pair of small white tusks. The elephant trumpeted loudly and flapped its little ears.

"Shh!" Hammond said as he closed the door. "Dianthus, you can't make loud noise in here. No one's supposed to know what's going on in this room except us."

The elephant shook his head and took a seat on the floor.

"You think this thing's gonna work?" Nedry asked.

Hammond shrugged. "Well, there's only one way to find out. Ray, start the program."

Arnold went over to his computer and punched some calculations that he'd been solving on the keyboard. Then the machine began firing up. Little lights on the sides of the cylinders flickered as rotors began to whir. "It's just got to warm up a bit first," Arnold reminded the others.

Several seconds passed by; the only source of sounds were from the motors as they prepared for action.

Henry rubbed his temples eagerly. "10 years of research . . . millions invested . . . if this thing works, our little project could be the most revolutionary thing since the invention of the cellphone!"

"Think of all the additional research we can accomplish if this device works," Dr. Sorkin breathed.

The rotors grew noisier; Dianthus ran underneath a desk to hide. The ray guns shot a beam of white light and energy towards the center of the prototype . . . this was where the process stopped before. But this time it didn't. Ten seconds went by and the beam remained until suddenly a bright flash of light occurred when the beams intensity grew stronger, forming a ball of light and energy between the two guns.

"Oh my gosh," Arnold breathed.

Suddenly, a "whispered" explosion of light and energy caused the energy ball to mushroom into a large orb! The orb was six feet in diameter. White light as bright as the sun filled the room and then the ball spat out what looked like shards of glass from its core. The shards floated and twirled around the orb – it was now a calm force of energy. The machine had worked. Hammond and the five scientists cheered with glee.

"I don't believe it!" Henry cried. "I don't believe it! It worked! It actually works!"

"Way to go you guys," Dr. Sorkin cheered. "This is so amazing."

"I knew we'd figure it out," Hammond said, "that just goes to show you that if you apply a little elbow grease and spare no expense, you can accomplish almost anything."

Henry admired the work he'd put into the project as the orb glimmered calmly in space. 10 years of research, six months of constructing and fine-tuning the prototype and millions of dollars spent . . . and their invention was actually working.

"Ha, ha! And all the scientists we asked said it couldn't be done," Arnold scoffed. "I guess we'll show them!"

Nedry went over to his desk and opened his next can of soda. "Don't give your hopes up too high," he said.

The other men frowned and looked in his direction. "What are you saying?" Hammond questioned. "Of course it works."

Nedry took a sip of his soda. "We've created an orb of light and energy. Big deal. We need to prove it actually works in the way it's supposed to."

Henry nodded. True, maybe his optimism was a bit premature. Maybe he'd judged the situation too soon. But he still felt a sense of victory inside, because he, Arnold, Sorkin and Nedry had done something that had never been accomplished by mankind before.

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**A/N: So what do you think of the story so far? I know this first chapter was a bit short, so I'll publish another one today. Some of you might be wondering about Hammond's little elephant. Well, in the original novel, it is mentioned that one of InGen's projects in bioengineering was genetically engineering an pint-sized elephant; this made investors eager to support InGen's projects. I'm not sure if Dianthus will make many more appearances in the story, but we should be seeing him again soon! Please be sure to follow, favorite and review on this story. And in your reviews, please don't post any profane or rude comments. Constructive criticism will do. Anyway, if you like Jurassic World so far, be sure to check out chapter 2!**


	2. Theories on Raptors

**JurassiQuest – Chapter 2: Theories on Raptors**

**A/N: OK, so in this chapter, you will be introduced to another side of this story, featuring two well-known paleontologists. This chapter is taking place about a week before Chapter 1 did. As is indicated by this chapter's title, you will also read about some intense discussion about one of everyone's favorite dinosaurs: Velociraptor! Please enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.**

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_The Velociraptor antirrhopus crouched in the brush, watching its prey nearby. The chosen prey was a herd of Tenontosaurus, one of the most common dinosaurs in the region. Tenontosaurus was a member of the iguanodont family and found throughout southwestern North America. They were herbivores, content to feed on the lush vegetation around the riverbank._

_The Velociraptor's eyes looked from one individual to the other, waiting for the perfect moment to go in for the attack. Somewhere nearby was the rest of the pack. Together, they would bring down a Tenontosaurus and feast on it for weeks, provided it wasn't stolen by another pack or a large carnosaur called Acrocanthosaurus. A fierce Acrocanthosaurus lived nearby and was always following the pack of raptors around, hoping to steal their kills._

_Sure, life for a Velociraptor wasn't easy; no, not only was it not easy, it was rough! A life of hard-knocks. Actually, life for every predator was rough. But this Velociraptor somehow managed, at least, it did when it was alive. The only way Grant could watch it in action was through his own imagination._

* * *

Grant stared in awe at the fossils lying beneath his nose as he imagined how the creature might have lived. Dr. Alan Grant was a paleontologist from the Black Hills Institute in Snakewater, Montana. He'd loved dinosaurs all his life. Grant, a ragged-looking guy in his mid-thirties with intense concentration you wouldn't want to get in the way of, graduated from college at the young age of 25, and already got involved in several major dig teams. His two major teachers were Dr. Horner and Dr. John Ostrom, with whom he'd made some startling discoveries about the dinosaur species he was digging up now, back in 2004. Now nine years later, in August of 2013, he had a dig team of his own.

As Dr. Grant continued brushing the loose dust off the skull he and his team were excavating, he couldn't help but quickly study the dinosaur's teeth – there were dozens of them lining the monster's jaw; they were once used to rip apart the flesh of its prey. Grant's fedora shielded his eyes from the hot Montanan sun as he saw imaginary saliva drooling down from the creature's jaws. And was it hot! But Grant didn't care; he was uncovering the animal he'd been studying for decades. With the loose dust off the skull, Grant picked up the chisel and hammer and began chipping away at the cement-like rock.

_You're really an amazing animal,_ Grant thought.

"Alan!"

Grant looked up sharply and saw great vastness of the rocky scrub land before him. It was hard to believe that this place was once as lush and tropical as Florida or Louisiana, with a myriad of different wetland trees, herds of herbivorous dinosaurs like _Tenontosaurus_ and droves of carnivorous _Acrocanthosaurus_ and _Velociraptors_. A beautiful and dangerous world that he'd never get a chance to–

"Alan!"

Grant looked behind him to see Dr. Ellie Sattler approaching him. She was a young blonde woman in her late twenties, athletic-looking. Ellie served as the paleobotonist on the team; she studied ancient plant life the dinosaurs coexisted with. She also happened to be Grant's girlfriend for the past three months, though she'd been a member of the team – a crucial member of the team – pretty much since Grant was able to conduct his own digs.

"Hey, Ellie," Grant said as he got up, leaving the other team members to continue brushing off the bones. "What's up?"

Ellie removed her sunglasses from her face. "Have you forgotten? The lecture starts in an hour and a half!"

Grant gasped. He'd almost forgotten! Today he was due to do a lecture at the Snakewater Museum of Natural History on his findings on _Velociraptors_. How could he have forgotten all about that! Even with an hour and a half of time left before it started, it would be tight: he had to go home, which would take 15 minutes, shower and change clothes, pick up Ellie and get to the museum in five minutes. He could do it, but only if he left right now.

Quickly, he told the other team members what to do until tomorrow concerning the skeleton and he and Ellie left the dig site.

* * *

Grant got out of his car and went over to the passenger side to let Ellie out. Grant had exchanged his sweaty, platted shirt, fedora and faded jeans in for an expensive suit. Ellie meanwhile was wearing a green dress; very fancy compared to what she normally wore. Then the two of them walked over to the museum entrance. Because he washed up instead of showering, Grant had saved some time. This was one of the many lectures Grant had attended over the past several years. You see, ever since he made a particular discovery in 2009, Grant's theories on dinosaurs had caused his career to start heading downhill. Financial supporters dropped out and donors stopped donating. The Black Hill Museum also had to cutback, not because of Grant's theories but because of financial issues; this didn't help the situation. Even with some financial support from a mysterious genetic engineering corporation – Grant could never remember the name – it wasn't enough. They needed more money, and soon. Perhaps tonight would change things.

Grant and Ellie walked into the backstage section of the auditorium. That's when an African-American woman by the name of Betty Fields – she was the curator of the museum – approached them. "Glad you made it in time!" she said. "Are you ready Dr. Grant?"

"Is the power point program up and running?" Grant asked.

"It will be by the time you get out there."

"Then just get me a cup of water and I'll be ready."

The curator nodded and left. Ellie turned to Grant and said, "Are you _really _ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be."

Ellie smiled. "Don't worry. You'll do fine." She lightly kissed him on the cheek. "You're still the best. I mean that."

"Last of my breed," Grant said with a grin.

* * *

"And now, it's my pleasure to introduce to you," Betty announced, "Dr. Alan Grant!"

Grant stepped from behind the curtains and the auditorium was instantly filled with loud clapping. Most of the audience was made up of college students, as the museum was on the came campus as the college known as the Montana Institute of Natural History. There must have been over a hundred people sitting in the auditorium, ready to hear Grant speak. Grant waved to his audience and began his lecture.

"For those of you who don't know me," he began, "my name's Dr. Alan Grant from the Black Hills Institute right here in Snakewater. I'm a paleontologist and my fossil hunting team mostly focuses on two geological formations that are exposed due to erosion right outside of town: the Hell Creek Formation from the upper Cretaceous, and Snakewater Formation from the lower Cretaceous. In many ways, the Snakewater Formation is similar to the Cloverly Formation of Wyoming and Montana and the Twin Mountain Formation found in Texas. Fossils of not only dinosaurs, but ferns, cycads, fish, frogs, invertebrates, mammals and birds have been discovered from these sites for many years. Therefore, we're able to reconstruct most of the ecosystem that existed back then."

Grant paused and shuffled his papers around on the podium. He glanced at his audience – so far so good, he hadn't lost their attention. Then he said, "In every ecosystem, there are particular roles that must be filled in order for the ecosystem to run smoothly. It's all part of a life-cycle: the sun's energy was absorbed by plants, which also suck up nutrients from the soil they grow in. Herbivores, such as _Tenontosaurus_ and _Edmontosaurus_, would eat these plants. The herbivores are consumed by carnivorous dinosaurs and both carnivores and herbivores die and decompose and etc. The process goes on. The same process we observe today also happened in the past when dinosaurs were alive, and by studying them, we can learn more about the ecosystem and vise versa. Perhaps one of the most interesting creatures that I've studied for the past ten years fills the special ecological niche of a small carnivore – it's called _Velociraptor antirrhopus_, the focus of today's lecture. _Velociraptor antirrhopus_ was a member of the dromaeosaur family. _Velociraptors_ were relatively small dinosaurs – they only grew up to six feet tall, were 11-13 feet long from nose to tail and weighed up to 200 pounds in life. They sported large brains, a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth, good vision and sense of smell and hearing, sharp claws on the forearms, long legs and a stiff tail for balance."

The slide picture changed from a painting of the_ Velociraptor's_ entire body to a view of its feet.

"But these were what set raptors apart from all other dinosaurs. On their feet, raptors possessed a tiny dewclaw, two larger toe claws, and a special sickle-shaped claw on each foot, nicknamed the 'killer claw'. This animal had one of these on each foot; it was six-inches long." He removed his own fossil raptor claw from his pocket and showed it to his audience. "This claw was held up off the ground when the animal stood, walked or ran, to keep it sharp. The raptor used its special claw for disemboweling its victims. With one kick of its foot, it could rip meter-long sections of a prey animal out and with smaller animals, about the size of a human, it could rip open the stomach completely."

Ellie watched with delight as he went Grant continued his speech. He went on to explain how _Velociraptors_ were first discovered, other members of the raptor family and how they all fit together taxonomy-wise. Then, Ellie held her breath as Grant neared the final and most controversial part of his speech.

"Perhaps one of the most interesting studies of raptors," Grant announced, "has been made very recently. Since 2009, my team and I have taken the skulls of _Velociraptor_ and placed it in a CT scanner. The machine is able to make a 3D model of the skull on the computer and we are able to see inside the head of a raptor. From this, we have observed that the brain case is quite large. In fact, in proportion to its body size, it is larger than any other known species of dinosaur except _Troodon_. This suggests that raptors were capable of high levels of intelligence, far beyond what we've ever expected for dinosaurs. But I'll get to that in a minute." He took a sip of water and then continued. "We've also learned from the CT scans that raptors had a very sophisticated resonating chamber. This means that for the first time, we can know if a theropod was able to vocalize. This lets us theorize – theorize, mind you – that the raptor was capable of sophisticated vocalization, which would have been a tremendous survival advantage. But why would they need this ability? Well, I think the answer is rather obvious: they needed it to communicate with other members of the pack. For a long time, dinosaurs were presumed to be loners. In paleoart from the late 17th century to the middle 20th century, dinosaurs were portrayed alone or in very small groups. But fossil evidence contradicts this notion. There is a tremendous amount of evidence that ceratopsians, hadrosaurs and sauropods traveled in groups. Now it seems that raptors also did this. Back in the 2004, I was part of a team that dug up terrific evidence for pack-behavior in Montana's Cloverly Formation. We discovered the teeth of several _Velociraptors_ on and around the fossilized remains of a _Tenontosaurus_, a common dinosaur in the area. From then on, we've discovered other dig sites with similar artifacts. This has led us to suggest that raptors might not have hunted alone like larger carnivores . . . but that they actually lived and hunted together, as a pack. More recently, the team I was with and I uncovered even more evidence to support this claim: the skeletons – not just teeth – of five _Velociraptors_ (four adults and a juvenile) were found in association with a _Tenontosaurus_ skeleton. Of course, we don't know if this is true or not, as we weren't there to see what happened, but the evidence does seem to conclude that raptors hunted in packs. And now that we've discovered just how intelligent and socially vocal these animals were, it only makes them more dangerous. Based on what we know, it seems that they could plan out and coordinate their attacks in such elaborate ways that prey wouldn't know what was going on. We now believe that raptors were actually able to talk to each other, to a degree we've never imagined, until now. They were smarter than dolphins or whales . . . and they were smarter than primates."

He took a moment to observe his audience; he noticed some people had left the auditorium, and a certain familiar paleontologist he recognized near the back, was drumming his fingers on the chair in front of him, impatient, edgy. Grant gulped and continued. "In conclusion, _Velociraptor antirhoppus_ were fierce, intelligent, and socially sophisticated. They were able to hunt in numbers, and coordinate their attacks. Were it not for the cataclysmic events that overtook them, it is entirely possible that raptors – or similar dinosaurs – rather than humans would have become the dominant species, on this planet. I hope this has been an interest. It certainly excites us, as paleontologists. There is much, much more to discovery. That is why we continue to need and ask for your support. Thank you."

The audience stood up and clapped before sitting back down, except for one man. It was the same familiar scientist Grant had observed earlier. His name was George Baselton. Now Baselton was a heavyset Stanford professor of paleontology with a southern accent. He was a popular face concerning scientific theories. It was once said that Baselton could manipulate the entire scientific community to gravitate toward one opinion with one sentence. He was a powerful man in the world of paleontology. He had a balding head with little remnants of neatly combed black hair on top of his head. A little pair of spectacles sat on his nose and his cheeks were chubby. He was wearing a bow tie and your typical expensive suit and a pair of suspenders. Not only was he a powerful man in paleontology, but a intimidating one at that.

"Yes, Dr. Baselton?" Grant sighed. He rubbed his head, knowing he was about to receive a verbal beating.

"Dr. Alan Grant," Baselton said, "we've all heard your speech, but I have a few . . . 'points', to make." He chuckled and took a sip of his freshly brewed coffee before walking into the center of the isle and toward the podium. "Now, Dr. Grant, you claim that we now have a tremendous amount of evidence that _Velociraptors_ hunted in packs, had complex vocalization abilities and had an amazing amount of intelligent. But what is your _proof_ for this claim?"

"Didn't you hear it?"

Baselton chuckled again. "_That_ was your proof? That's all you've got?" He reached the front of the podium and looked out over the audience. "Ladies and gentlemen of the Snakewater Museum of Natural History. My grandfather, Dr. William Baselton, was a simple man. He believed it was man's right to make use of the bountiful _evidence . . . _that's before us! As a paleontologist, he studied the earth extensively for clues to its past, but he understood not to take the evidence he saw before him and lavish it with falsities! If we lived in the topsy-turvey world Dr. Grant imagines, I might have to negotiate with an intelligent dinosaur skeleton whether or not I am able to display its fossils in a museum or take them to a proper burial!" Some of the audience nodded.

It was quite typical of Baselton to have a "few" words to say after a speech, specifically Grant's speeches. And somehow, he always managed to find Grant's lectures on dinosaurs . . . literally, always. Grant and Baselton didn't have the best relationship with each other, and this didn't help the fact that they had different views on how to interpret the fossils Grant dug up. Baselton never went out into the field himself; as a professor, he studied fossils that had already been collected and taught what he knew to others, and he knew a lot!

"Before I start talking about pack-hunting, why do you keep referring to your dinosaur as _Velociraptor_? _Velociraptor_ is a turkey-sized predator from Asia, not the man-sized animal you're talking about. You're referring to _Deinonychus_ _antirrhopus_."

"I just stuck to that name," Grant responded. "That's why I announced it as _Velociraptor antirrhopus_ instead of simply "_Velociraptor_", as to not confuse people. I understand the difference, but I just simply like referring to the name used when that paleontologist thought the two should be lumped together into the same genus. So yes, I'm referring to _Deinonychus_, but I'm just using the term _Velociraptor_."

Baselton cleared his throat. "To get to my main point, there is no evidence whatsoever that raptors were pack animals by any stretch."

"Didn't you hear what I was just talking about?" Grant asked.

"That's not proof! Just because you find a bunch of carnivores together doesn't make them a pack. Modern archosaurs display little cooperative hunting. Crocodiles are usually solitary hunters. They lie in wait for prey to come by the water's edge before attacking. They don't hunt in packs. Now they will hunt in groups when a prey source attracts multiple crocodiles to one location, but they aren't hunting cooperatively as you suggest raptors do. Komodo dragons also sometimes hunt in a group, but it's more of a mobbing technique rather than cooperative hunting. It's every dragon for itself. There's no reason to think raptors were any different."

Grant asked, "But we've found–"

"The 'pack' of raptors you've uncovered around the _Tenontosaurus_? Ha, ha. What you've found is consistent with a crocodile or Komodo dragon-like feeding strategy. Using this strategy of feeding, the biggest animals will get to eat first, then the little ones, if they aren't attacked and/or killed first by the adults. The _Velociraptors _you found together show evidence of having been partially consumed by other raptors. That's your evidence? You're a joke, Dr. Grant."

"But who's to say they weren't a pack?" Grant said. "You can't prove they weren't. Modern animals also do the same."

"But any example you'd give would have to be from what we see in mammals. Very different creatures from dinosaurs. Now granted, Dr. Grant, I'm willing to be open to the possibility of pack-hunting raptors, even if I don't believe it was as complex as you suggest, but there's one thing I can not and will not put up with: raptor intelligence." Some murmuring occurred among the audience.

"We've done CT scans."

"How do we _know _your scans were legitimate? How do we _know_, you didn't fake the tests."

"Check with the Black Hills Institute," Grant said, "if you're having any doubts in the tests. I can assure you, they were conducted and were legitimate. Surely you're not going to argue against that."

"No. But your conclusions could very well have been wrong! How would the size of the brain case determine the creature's ability to think and communicate?"

"Well," Grant began, "we looked at the brain size of _Velociraptor_, obviously, and compared it to the brain size of other dinosaurs. After the CT scanning, we theorized that raptors would have been capable of complex behavior because their brain size is greater than what would be expected from an animal its size. Raptors had to be smarter than their prey in order to successfully take them down, so intelligence would have helped them greatly."

"But that's not enough evidence to support your claim! Has your research been peer-reviewed? Your argument is simply based on analogy of related species of dinosaurs." He turned to the audience and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, the evidence for intelligent, pack-hunting raptors, or any dinosaur, is weak. Not only could raptor congregations found so far have been swept into one location by a flood, but even if they were killing prey or dining together, it was unlike what you'd expect from mammals. Comparing the brain sizes of a raptor to other dinosaurs could potentially be a quite flawed process, as animals with the same brain-to-body ratio can have completely different habits. Lions and solitary leopards are different – lions hunt in prides, leopards don't. But there's no difference in brain size! There is nothing from Dr. Grant's CT scans to prove they were as intelligent as he claims. As a lesson to all of you here today, you must examine _all_ the evidence from _all_ sides before jumping to such conclusions. Don't be like Dr. Alan Grant, the paleontologist wannabe you see standing here before you in his nice suit and pants. As much as he wishes to perpetuate his claims, there's no basis behind him. Don't be like Dr. Grant here, and you will all go far."

And with that, the lecture was dismissed.

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**A/N: Alright, so in this chapter, you were introduced to several characters, most of which you'll already know about if you're a Jurassic Park fan. Dr. Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler will be some of the main characters in this story. I'm not quite sure what role Dr. Baselton will play yet. Anyways, if you enjoyed the story, please be sure to review, favorite and follow this story if you haven't already and I'll be publishing the next chapter next week. R&r!**


	3. Through the Orb

**JurassiQuest – Chapter 3: Through the Orb**

**A/N: Alright everyone! Here's chapter 3! For those of you who might be confused, Grant's side of the story takes place one week after the InGen side of the story. This chapter will feature both story sides. Please enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.**

* * *

Dr. Alan Grant sighed as he exited the bathroom. He didn't go in there to use it, but it was the only place he could think of where he could recuperate without the press at his back. He didn't want to talk to the press right now, or anybody for that matter. Unfortunately that's not what fate had in store for him.

"Oh! Dr. Grant!" exclaimed a reporter as she and several other newspaper anchors approached the paleontologist. "I have a quick question. Dr. Baselton had some very scientific objections to your theories on raptors, could you comment?"

"Not right now," Grant said. He kept repeating those three words to every reporter who asked him questions, and he had to say them it seemed hundreds of times. The reporters were almost like a mob, but more annoying than angry.

Finally, he found Dr. Sattler near the crowded entrance of the museum. He went over to her.

"Hey, you OK?" Ellie asked.

"Aside from the fact that that hotshot excuse for a paleontologist completely humiliated me in front of hundreds of influential people," Grant said grimly, "I'm doing great."

"Well, if it isn't Dr. Alan Grant," said an all too familiar male voice.

Grant and Sattler turned around and saw Dr. George Baselton approaching them.

"Shouldn't you be going to your next lecture?" Grant asked.

"Shouldn't you be out there raising money to support your dig site?" Baselton asked.

"Well I wouldn't have to do that if you would quit interrupting my lectures. What is your problem?"

Baselton chuckled. "See, you know what your problem is, Dr. Grant? You have no concept of differing views. You're too . . . wishy-washy. You think you see evidence for one thing and you flock toward it. You have no point of view. You're too narrow-minded."

"How is my theory narrow-minded? I offer a brand new opinion and you reject it."

"Because there's not enough evidence to support it."

"Maybe it's because _you_ are too narrow-minded. But that's beside the point, you still have no right to humiliate me like you did tonight, like you do at every single one of my latest lectures. That's all you do. You utterly bulldoze-down any scientist that comes in your way. What happened to the freedom of science."

"Freedom has limits, Dr. Grant."

"But I did have some evidence to point toward my theory. Even if my theory is incorrect, you still didn't have to do what you did. Why don't you just consult me privately?"

"Because you're misleading the flock," Baselton said. "You're leading people down the wrong path, trying to get them all to believe your no-evidence theory with no water behind it. You can't do this. Many of the people in that auditorium tonight were young folks – graduate students – who are considering paleontology to be their career. We can't have them be free-lance thinkers who are always thinking outside the box. Thinking outside the box can be a good thing, but not always. We need these people to stick with the theories on paleontology that have been formed and generally agreed upon by all main scientists. People like you and I are responsible for influencing these young people, and we need them to think reasonably."

"But you're not even leaving room for–"

"Dr. Grant." The older scientist straightened his glasses. "Let me get something through your head: the way you are, you are just a sad, strange little poor excuse for a scientist and you will _never_ get very far in your career."

Without another word, Baselton turned around and left the couple.

Grant sighed. "Now why did he have to say that?"

"Just let it go, Grant," Ellie said.

"I'm ready to go home. I need some rest."

"Let's go see where–"

Before she could finish the sentence, a young boy, only 15 years old approached Grant and Ellie. He had short brown straight hair. "Dad, are you OK?"

Grant frowned. "Well, not exactly."

Luke Grant was Alan's son from his previous marriage. He had been in the auditorium watching his father's lecture. Luke could tell by the expression on his dad's face that he was exhausted. "Where are we going now?"

"We're going to drop Ellie off and then go home."

"But . . . weren't we supposed to go to the movies tonight, just the two of us?"

"Sorry son, not tonight."

Luke's face fell, but he nodded understandably. "Yeah, OK. Maybe tomorrow."

With no further reason to stay in the museum, Grant, Ellie and Luke headed outside to get in the car.

* * *

_One week earlier . . ._

Nedry took a sip of his soda. He, Arnold, Hammond and Henry gazed at the beautiful glowing object they'd just created. Nedry said, "We've created an orb of light and energy. Big deal. We need to prove it actually works in the way it's supposed to."

Henry nodded. "Yes, I suppose we should. But what could it do to harm us, right? I mean, we should be able to enter it."

"There's no way of knowing for sure," Arnold said. "Right now, we have no way of knowing whether we'll be able to walk into it or whether all that energy will simply destroy a living thing. We need some sort of living thing to go through it–"

"I say we through the little elephant in there," Nedry suggested.

Everyone turned toward Dianthus. The little elephant was still frightened by the orb of light and huddled underneath Arnold's desk. Henry shook his head.

"No, it took too long to recreate a dwarf elephant," he said. "An elephant's gestation period is 22 months, that's a long time and that doesn't count the amount of time I had to spend sifting through genes, finding out which ones are responsible for certain characteristics in the elephant genetic makeup. I'm not doing that again anytime soon."

"Well, something has to go through it," Nedry said.

"I'll do it," Hammond said.

"What? No, you can't," Henry said. He shook his head. "You're the boss of this company. We loose you, we've got big problems."

Henry thought he heard the sound of a helicopter nearby, but there were no windows and the laboratory they were in wasn't close to the outside world. "What is that?"

"What do you mean?" Hammond asked.

"I hear a buzzing sound, sounds almost like a helicopter propeller or something, but I don't know from what."

"Must be one of the rotors," Nedry said.

Arnold backed him up. "Yeah, Nedry's probably right. Once some of this machinery has been running for a little while, it sometimes makes a whirring sound that sounds almost like–"

A pair large insect zoomed out of the glowing orb.

"Duck!" Henry cried. Everyone ducked just as the two creatures zoomed over their heads and began flying around the room. "What in the world?"

The two insects resembled dragonflies, as were long and skinny, bearing six legs, large heads with humongous green eyes. They flew with giant almost-transparent wings. However, these insects were much larger than dragonflies, with a two foot wingspan! The dragonflies darted around the small, dark room.

"I didn't know dragonflies grew that big!" Nedry said.

"They don't . . . in modern times," Henry said.

"What are they?" Arnold asked.

Henry shook his head in awe. He didn't remember what they were called at the moment; he tried to stretch back through his memory; he tried to recall the animals by name . . . "_Meganeura monyi_, that's what they are. They don't exist anymore but . . ." he looked at the orb. He laughed and cried. "I can't believe it . . . we've created the first working time portal." Who knew the first organisms in history to time travel would be insects.

"I'll be famous after this."

"It's great that all of our hard work paid off," Nedry said, "but, uh . . . we've got to figure out what to do with these bugs." The other three men looked over at Henry's desk and saw that the giant insects were resting, one on the computer and the other on the backrest of Henry's chair.

"You know, we might have an interesting problem here," Henry said. "No one alive today has ever seen a living _Meganeura_. I think we should keep these animals, for study purposes."

"If that's the case, we might need to do some research," Arnold said. "We have no idea what these animals eat, what habitat they like or anything for that matter. What would you suggest we do next, Hammond? Hammond?"

Henry and Arnold glanced in Hammond's direction to see that he was standing in front of the orb. "It's really beautiful, what you three have created. You three should be proud."

"Hammond . . . what are you doing?"

Hammond reached his hand out, trying to touch the spiraling shards circling the glowing orb. "We're at the edge of one of the most incredible discoveries of our time . . . and now we must take full advantage of this opportunity . . ." Hammond took a step forward, and another, he was walking into the time portal.

"Hammond, wait!"

But Hammond entered the time portal and disappeared.

"Where's he gone?" Nedry asked. "Think he's still alive or what?"

"He better be." With that, Henry plunged into the time portal after his boss.

* * *

Henry rushed into the time portal and exited out the other side. With Hammond now at his side, he was amazed by what he saw: he and Hammond had landed in a great swampy forest. There were great tree-like plants soaring 150 feet into the sky with fern-like fronds extending from their tops. Mist floated through some parts of the bog, giving it a mysterious appearance. It appeared to be about noontime, as the sun was directly above them. Even the ground was different – instead of being made up completely of soil, it appeared to be composed of some soil, but also tree roots and plant matter, much like a modern quaking bog . . . a totally different world from their own.

Buzzing sounds to the left. Henry saw dozens of giant dragonflies darting around the swamp. He shook his head in amazement.

"Isn't it wonderful?" Hammond asked.

"You shouldn't have just charged through the time portal like that," Henry cautioned. "We didn't know if it was safe."

"The dragonflies came through it unharmed, so I didn't see any danger in it. Do you know where we are?"

"Well, based on the plants and animal life, we're in the Carboniferous." Henry remembered reading about these Carboniferous forests; they would eventually become deposited in loads of sediment and would then transform into one of the fossil fuels we use today: coal. Henry glanced around some more and spotted some strange salamander-like creatures basking on the riverbank. They were three feet long and had mouthfuls of sharp teeth. "We won't find any dinosaurs here; they didn't live in the Carboniferous."

"So it's safe." Hammond started walking forward, but Henry grabbed him back.

"We don't know everything about the Carboniferous. There may be something dangerous out here that we don't know about."

Hammond shook his head. "I don't understand you, Henry. I don't think you're giving yourself your due credit. You've designed something nobody has ever done before. You _deserve_ to see what your creation has allowed you access to."

"But I don't want to die doing it. Look, we can come back. But we need to take the necessary precautions. We can further discuss our next course of action in the 21st century. Come along, John."

Reluctantly, Hammond allowed himself to be pulled back in the direction of the portal, back to the present.

"See?" Henry said. "We're already biting off more than we can chew!"

* * *

Nedry and Arnold waited at the other end of the time portal.

"Maybe we should go in after them," Arnold said. "We need to make sure they're OK."

"I think they're fine," Nedry said as he took another swig of soda.

"I don't know. We don't have any idea what's on the other side of the portal–"

Hammond and Henry reappeared through the time portal; they both looked awestruck with fascination.

"What was it like on the other side?" Arnold asked.

"It was . . ." Henry breathed heavily. "Breathtaking. I've never seen anything like it. We just went back in time!"

"Fascinating."

The door to the laboratory opened and light spewed into the room, alerting the dragonflies so that they took to the air. The janitor came into the room.

"Hello, guys," he said. "I've just . . ." he saw the time portal. "By golly! What's that?"

Henry hissed to Hammond, "You forgot to lock the door."

"Oh dear–"

A dragonfly zoomed toward the janitor, who ducked, and before they knew it the insect flew out of the room. "What's going on in here?"

Henry, Arnold, Hammond and Nedry rushed out of the room, shoving the janitor out of the way and Henry locked the door behind him. The insect flew in great circles around the building. The InGen complex was a big and open building. If someone left a window open, the dragonfly could escape into the world!

"We've got to catch that dragonfly!" Henry exclaimed. "If that thing gets out, it could collapse entire ecological food chains!"

The dragonfly didn't care about the trouble it was causing and flew toward the second story of the building (the InGen headquarters was three stories tall). Its pursuers ran into the nearest elevator and punched in the button for the 2nd floor. Unfortunately, the elevator was relatively slow.

"Sorry about not locking the door behind me," Hammond said. "I should have remembered that."

"Never mind now," Arnold said. "We have to get a hold of that dragonfly."

The elevator dinged and the doors opened just in time to see the flying animal dart to the third floor. Everyone sighed and the elevator went further up. This time, they had caught up with the fast dragonfly. It flew away from the elevator and toward an open office door. Running as fast as they could without crashing into people walking down the hall, the four men followed. It must have been strange for everyone else to see these four running around in the building after a giant bug.

Unfortunately, the insect was much faster than the humans and was able to keep ahead of them. The dragonfly flew into a woman's office. The woman was at her desk using her computer when she saw it.

"Ah!" she screamed. She picked up a stack of manilla folders and threw them at the insect. The insect dodged the folders and circled the room. "Get away from me! Get away! Get away! Get away!"

Finally, the dragonfly landed gracefully on her desk. The woman got out of her chair and got herself into the nearest corner, petrified by the insect. She picked up a heavy book . . .

Hammond, Henry, Nedry and Arnold rushed into the room and saw the woman aiming the book.

"No, wait, don't–"

It was too late, as she threw the book the agile dragonfly flew upwards and out of the room through a window leading to the neighboring office.

The woman looked at the men. "What was that thing?"

"Um . . ." Henry wasn't sure how to explain this. "We can tell you later." With no further explanation, they headed to the other office.

Once the dragonfly was seen by the man working in that office, he had a similar reaction to that of the woman. "What is that thing?!" he yelled. But the dragonfly didn't stay long. It went out of that office and into a conference room, and it was in use.

* * *

In front of several business people sitting at a long table, a man in a black suit was drawing their attention to some numbers and words on the chalk board. "Now, the purpose of this endeavor, is success. If we're going to succeed, we're going to need to all focus and work together. We need to think–"

"Dragonfly!" a woman exclaimed.

"No, we're not – oh my goodness!" the man at the chalk board cried.

They all saw the dragonfly circle the room near the ceiling. Some of them screamed, others covered their heads with folders or whatever they could find in immediate reach; others did both. The man at the black board stood motionless, shocked to see a dragonfly so big. A moment later, it flew toward an open window and landed on the windowsill.

"Shoo it out the window," someone suggested.

"No! Don't!" Henry exclaimed as he and the other three men rushed into the room.

"Mr. Hammond," the man at the black board began. "What's going on here?"

"I'll talk to you later, Frank."

For the moment, the insect was still, save the low beating of the creature's wing beats. But Henry knew that the moment it was alarmed, it would once again take to the air; this time, it would fly out the window, and there would be little chance of catching it again.

Slowly, very slowly, Henry crept toward the giant bug from the past. So far, it hadn't moved from its position. "Come on little guy," he whispered. "You don't want to go out there. It's not your world out there any more . . ." Henry flung his hands in the dragonfly's direction and he clung onto its back. The insect flapped its large, transparent wings, trying to take off, but Henry had a firm grip on it. He picked it up to get a better grip on it. "Got you," he said.

"Um . . . what's going on here?" Frank asked.

"It's uh . . . a rare species of dragonfly from the Indonesian rainforests," Henry said. "Very rare species. Probably less than 100 left in the wild. Important research opportunity." Henry and the other three men started out of the room.

"But I've never seen a dragonfly _that_ big."

"_Very_ rare species," Henry repeated. Then he left the room.

* * *

In InGen's biological department, the two _Meganeura_ were resting in a temporary holding enclosure, similar to a butterfly enclosure, but larger. It wasn't much, but it would likely keep the dragonflies content for now.

"So let me get this straight," Claire said, "these are two _Meganeura_ from the ancient past?"

"Yes," Henry said.

Claire Sampson was a tall, brown and curly-haired woman with glasses and a lab coat. She was the head of InGen's biology department. Normally, this department was responsible for the study of cells, bacteria, physiology and anatomy, sometimes even botany, but they'd never had to care for anything like this.

"How long are they staying?" she asked.

Henry shrugged. "Until we can get sort of permanent housing for them. We don't know yet."

"What do they eat?"

"We don't know exactly. I'll do some research and let you know. But they haven't been out of their time for too long, so they should be OK for now."

Claire sighed. "Alright Henry, whatever you say."

"Thanks, Claire."

Henry walked briskly back to his laboratory where the time portal was and met back up with Arnold, Hammond and Nedry. When he arrived, the other three men were staring amazed at the time portal.

"What do we do with this now?" Nedry asked.

"We should turn it off," Arnold said. "We don't need anything else coming in."

Nedry nodded and turned the machine off. In a flash, the glowing orb grew brighter than it normally was before suddenly disappearing into nothing. Now there was nothing visible between the two ray guns. Personally, Henry, as much as he wanted to go back through the time portal, he'd had enough for one day.

Arnold chuckled to himself.

"What?" Hammond said.

"We did it!" he exclaimed. "We actually did it: we built a working time portal, you two traveled back in time and we even have to insect specimens from the past. 10 years of research . . . and it finally boiled down to this very moment. International Genetic Technologies has a bright future ahead of it."

Henry nodded. He looked over at Hammond. "Can I see you in the genetics lab, Hammond?"

* * *

**A/N: Well, how did you all like this chapter? How did you like my inclusion of the Meganeura? A giant dragonfly made an appearance in the Jurassic Park novel, and they haven't made an appearance in anything else related to Jurassic Park so I decided they'd be a great addition to the story. I also thought it would be a good idea to add it since it's a little different than something you'd expect from a Jurassic Park story. Anyway, please be sure to favorite, follow and review this story and I'll see you all soon! R&r! **


	4. On the Brink of Great Discovery

**JurassiQuest – Chapter 4: On the Brink of Great Discovery**

**A/N: In this week's chapter, we'll be introduced to a third perspective of the story and you'll also find out just what great discoveries InGen is on the brink of making. Please enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.**

* * *

It was two days after Dr. Grant's lecture, on Friday, that Luke sat in his desk in his ninth grade classroom during the last period. He watched boringly as his teacher, Mrs. Chloe Brown, pointed to certain figures on the black board. She was lecturing about cell division, something that Luke normally would find interesting on a normal day. But it was late in the school day and all Luke wanted to do was get his backpack and head home.

"Now as you can see here," Mrs. Brown said, "cells are able to replicate themselves when one cell divides into two daughter cells. This triggers the growth of multicellular organisms and procreation. In some organisms, the separation of cells is also how they reproduce. Simple amoeba are a terrific example of this. The way the cells in an amoeba work are quite different from more complex organisms. Multicellular organisms replace worn-out cells through cell division. In some animals, cell division eventually halts, however. And this leads to–"

The school bell rung; school was finally finished for the day! Luke was glad. He and other students erupted from their chairs, but before they could do much else, Mrs. Brown said, "Before you all go, I'd like to remind you that you're to study page 352 in your biology text books and then write your 10-page analysis on that topic. Class dismissed."

* * *

Luke hurried out of the classroom. He was anxious to get home so his dad and him could go bowling like Grant had promised after the plan to go to the movies was ditched. Luke opened his locker and took some papers out of his backpack. Quickly glancing at each one, he placed them into his locker.

"Hey, Luke," said a male voice from behind.

Luke turned around to see his friend Tom. "Oh, hi Tom. Glad to see that you're all better." Today was Tom's first day back at school after he had gotten sick. Tom was one of Luke's best friends and was about his height. He had a freckled face and reddish-blond hair.

"Did you get to see the movie on Wednesday night. You seemed really excited about–"

"Dad couldn't take me."

"What? Why not? You said you'd have plenty of time after his lecture–"

"He was really beat up at the end of the lecture. He was really tired. Didn't feel like doing much. We just dropped Ellie at her house and went home that night."

"That's a bummer."

"Yeah, I guess," Luke grabbed a stack of books from his locker, shut the locker's door and began walking down the hall with Tom. "To tell you the truth, dad's just been really busy lately. Ever since we started loosing money to support his digs–"

"Why did you guys start loosing money?" Tom asked. "I forgot. Was it because of Dr. Baselton's constant degrading of your father's public image or something else?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but I think that's a major part of it. Thanks to Baselton, my father's kind of viewed as a numbskull by a lot of people, including the investors. Therefore, the investors aren't helping to support my dad's excavations. The Black Hills Institute will have to quit the digging operation within a couple of weeks."

"That's just sad. I mean, it's not like your dad's theory involves aliens and zombie-dinosaur werewolves or something."

"I know, right? That's why my Dad's been lecturing at other institutes and colleges in an effort to raise more money. But that's when Baselton keeps publicly criticizing his work."

"Can't Dr. Grant just teach on something else to raise money?"

"It's not that simple. One of his most frequently studied dinosaurs are dromaeosaurs, and even when he doesn't specifically mention his controversial theories on raptors, it's always brought up because they're so well-known, by either Baselton or someone else."

A familiar trio of teens suddenly rushed past Luke and Tom. The tallest of the trio roughly knocked into Luke, causing him to drop his books. "Oh my!" he said. "I'm so sorry about that! Need help picking those up, Luke?"

"Sure," Luke said.

The taller kid snickered. "I was being sarcastic, loser."

Luke and Tom picked up the fallen books and turned to face Logan Mullings and his "gang" of troublemakers, John Suckling and Matt Peterson. Logan was taller than Luke and Tom and had short blond hair, wore dark shades and always wore a purple and blue sports jacket (the two colors of his favorite football team); he was one of the most popular guys in the entire school and when he didn't have a flock of girls swarming around him, he was busy bullying the less popular kids (including the older ones), specifically Luke.

"What do you want, Logan?" Luke asked.

"With you? Nothing," Logan answered. "It's just funny whenever you drop your stuff or make some dumb mistake."

"Come on, just give it a rest, will ya?" Tom argued.

"It's true though," John said. "And he's destined to always be a loser, just like his father."

Luke scowled, but said nothing.

"Anyone with a crack-brain father really should lay low," Logan said, "I mean, it's not actually as if your father is actually doing the research."

"He does know what he's talking about and he did do the research," Luke argued. "What would you know about it anyway? When's the last time you read a book on paleontology?"

"Everyone knows your father's a lunatic, kiddo. All the other scientists think his theories are ludicrous. I don't know why you want to follow in his footsteps. He's a loser and destined for failure." Luke sighed and he and Tom started walking away as Logan continued. "And now, because your father won't renounce his crazy ideas, he's losing money. He doesn't even have time to spend with his own son! What kind of a father is he?"

"Ow, burn!" Matt exclaimed.

Logan and his followers began trailing behind Luke and Tom. "You know, I kinda shocked he still has a girlfriend. She must not be too bright, you know, if she's staying with the money-loosing loser your father is–"

Luke whirled around and snarled, "Look, everyone things my Dad's a lunatic now, but you just wait. One day, he _will_ prove his theories everyone else will see that he was right all along! He just needs more time."

"Time? He's had _years_! You and your father are just a couple of losers."

"Losers! Losers! Losers!" Matt and John chanted.

Luke and Tom headed down the bustling school hall.

* * *

They finally reached the entrance to the school building. Because school was over for the day, there were lots of other students around waiting to either board one of the buses or get a ride home with their parents. Those that could drive were already waiting in their cars. Tom and Luke made their way through the crowds so that they could see the parking lot.

"What if he's right?" Luke asked.

"If who's right?" Tom asked.

"Logan, Dr. Baselton and everybody else."

"Don't you get sucked into believing any of that garbage. The real issue here isn't who's right and who's wrong, it's how everyone relates to everyone else due to their beliefs."

"True but–"

"We may never know if Dr. Grant's right about his theories or not. I mean, no one alive today has ever seen one of those animals alive! I don't know if he'll ever get affirmative proof for his theory, but I do know that you can't keep letting yourself get constantly mentally knocked down by what other people think. My dad says that sometimes, we just have to ignore those people and not let them effect us. Otherwise, we might miss the very thing that could turn our lives around."

Luke nodded. "Thanks, Tom."

"Anytime." He looked at the parking lot and gasped. "Oh, my rides here. I'll catch up with you later, Luke."

"Yeah, see ya, bro."

Luke watched as his best friend rushed to the crosswalk to get to his parents car. He sighed, wondering where his dad was. He hoped his father hadn't gotten extra busy at the dig site today so that he'd have to be waiting here for hours on end. _Why can't he ever be here on time?_ he thought.

Just then, his cellphone made a quick buzzing sound – his text notification. He looked at it and read: **Sorryy, can't pic youk uop from scholl te bus hoe. Lovemyou, Dad. **Luke sighed again and glanced up at the parking lot, _He's texting with his gloves on, again_. Despite the major grammatical typos, Luke was able to decode the message: "**Sorry, can't pick you up from school today. Catch the bus home. Love you, Dad.**" Not having another reason to remain on the school campus, Luke walked over to the nearest bus that would take him home.

* * *

Dr. Henry Wu led John Hammond, followed by Dianthus, into his genetics laboratory. It was a wide open room with quite a few long tables and chairs and desks to conduct science experiments and lab tests. This was where Henry used to spend most of his time, months before he started working on the time portal. Now that the time portal was created, he hoped he could spend most of his time in here once again. This room was normally bustling with activity, but all the lab scientists were out to lunch this time of day. Even with no one actively working in this laboratory, it was easy to see that this where the core work (aside from the time portal) of InGen took place. On the far side of the room, Henry glanced at the shelves housing lots of pieces of fossilized tree sap – amber.

Hammond's little elephant rested on the floor as Hammond began to speak. "Henry, now that we're alone, please tell me why on earth you're so concerned about the time portal? You created it, and you – we all – deserve to be able to use it."

"True, but time travel could be very dangerous," Henry argued. "As far as we know, we're the first people in history to travel back in time. We're pioneers in this realm of science; we need to be careful how we use it. We can't just go blindly blundering about; that could cause some serious consequences."

"What type of consequences, Henry?"

"Well . . ." for once Henry had to stop and think. This is when one rather obvious consequence came to mind. "The space-time continuum. If we change something in the past, it could alter the present and–"

"Space-time continuum," Hammond chuckled. "To my knowledge, it's just a theory. Some scientists have suggested that if time travel is possible, it would not effect the time line due to it happening in a sort of . . . simultaneous reality. You worry too much, Henry. However, having a working time portal, you can _test_ the space-time continuum theory."

"But there are other precautions that must be made, John. Time travel is just plain dangerous. About all we can know from the past and places we'd be exploring is gained from the fossil record. And the fossil record is still kind of vague on many details. There might be loads of dangerous predators for example; predators we haven't even discovered yet. Now-extinct dangerous diseases could be present, and for all we know, the oxygen levels could be drastically different from today. John, you know what we've been interested in studying after creating the time portal – dinosaurs. Based on what paleontologists believe about them, many of these creatures are far more dangerous than many of the modern carnivores alive today; crocodiles, elephants, chimpanzees, African buffalo and big cats kill hundreds of people every year. Many dinosaurs were _much_ larger. I want to go into the past as much as you do, but it's too dangerous to do this foolishly."

Hammond gave a deep sigh. "Are you implying I'm not skilled enough to go back in time?"

"No, but you're too–"

"Don't say 'old'."

"I wasn't going to say 'old'. But you're too _important_ to this company. If we loose you, Ingen will go out of whack. We're on the brink of too many revolutionary scientific discoveries to have a re-shifting of InGen employees. We both know that that's exactly what would happen."

Hammond sighed again. "Well, perhaps you're right."

"Besides, if I continue working on the time portal project – or at least, spending most of my time in that area – I won't be able to finish my other important science projects." Henry started walking over to the shelves of amber. Hammond and Dianthus followed.

"Bioengineering," Hammond breathed.

"Over the past ten years, Laura and I have caused our knowledge into the workings of DNA has increased dramatically," Henry explained. "If we keep up our pace of research on this topic, we'll be able to produce living creatures using their DNA, not within the next century, but in a few months to a year, through the process of cloning."

"Yes, I'm aware of that." Hammond looked down at Dianthus. The little elephant was peeking underneath a desk, curious as to what lie under it. His trunk probed curiously under the desk when . . . _achoo!_ Dust got caught up the elephant's trunk and it was quickly sneezed out.

Dianthus was not produced via cloning, in the technical sense of the word. In 2008, Dr. Wu retrieved the embryo of an Asian elephant and was able to turn on and turn off certain genes. He found it possible to turn off the genes that would cause the mammal to grow to normal size. Two years later, the female Asian elephant at a nearby zoo gave birth to Dianthus. The purpose of Dianthus was initially to help get investors support the InGen company. It was a very easy process. Hammond would bring Dianthus into the office of potential investors in a little cage covered with a blanket. After explaining a bit about his company, he'd whip off the blanket, show off the elephant and ask for the money. Needless to say, investors were quite easy to come by.

Hammond looked back up at Henry as the scientist continued speaking. "Based on my latest research, I believe we're fairly close to cloning extinct animals. The science of cloning has greatly increased our knowledge of the topic. Other laboratories around the world have been studying the science of cloning and have had great success. I believe it's not long before we will be able to clone creatures that have been extinct for eons of time. The Pyrenean Ibex and gastric-brooding frog were already been brought back from extinction, and I don't think it will be long before we – _International Genetic Technologies_ – will be able to clone animals far more ancient than that."

"Dinosaurs," Hammond said. "Yes, we've discussed all this already–"

"I know, but we're getting extremely close to actually doing so!" Henry grabbed a piece of amber from off the shelf and held it up to the light on the ceiling – the piece of hardened sap glowed and illuminated the tiny body of a mosquito, long since trapped inside. "We have sources of dinosaur DNA from amber and dinosaur bones. Laura says we should have more than enough DNA to create a living dinosaur. In fact, we're so close to actually cloning one, that we're going to have to start thinking ahead. I have very good theories on how we can grow a dinosaur embryo and how to produce a living dinosaur from the unfertilized egg of some living creatures. I haven't narrowed it down to exactly what just yet, but I'm suspecting alligators, crocodiles, emus or ostriches might work. Arnold tells me that Nedry's close to programming a computer system that will be able to decode the DNA we find. All I need is the time to conduct a little bit more research and then we'll be able to clone dinosaurs. But in order to do that, I need to spend more time here in the bioengineering labs, rather than seeking to go back in time and study the ancient world. Laura's working full time in this lab and not as much work can get accomplished unless we're both doing it. We're a team."

"But couldn't we just go back in time and get dinosaurs?" Hammond inquired. "I appreciate all you two have done in this lab, but–"

"I don't think we should meddle with the past too much," Henry interrupted. "When we time travel, we need to make as small of an impact as possible. Besides, if we want dinosaurs in the present to study, we'll need to produce our own stock."

"Agreed."

"But we can't clone any dinosaurs unless this laboratory is where I'm spending most of my time."

Hammond nodded. He could see Henry's point. "Then . . . what do you suggest we do?"

Henry looked thoughtful. He remained silent for several seconds before speaking. "Well, I think, we'll need to get a group of scientists," he said, "that we'll send back in time. Scientists that can take the time to study the dinosaurs in the past, and maybe collect a few – and I do mean a _few_ – specimens to bring back; that way, we'll be able to continue our work here."

"I guess that sounds like a good idea. Who should we send?"

Henry shrugged. "Hey, don't ask me. You'll have to speak to your other people you have working for you: Gennaro, Ludlow, Ed Regis. They could probably find a group of scientists to bring into this project." He paused. "Now that I think of it, we're financing some scientists aren't we? You could recruit them, since they're already associated with us."

Hammond nodded again and said, "Well, I'm glad we had this talk. It's cleared up a few of my concerns."

"Yes, mine too."

* * *

Nedry and Arnold, with Dr. Sorkin at his side, sat at their desks in the time portal room, doing work on their computers. Nedry looked at his watch: 12:45 p.m. "Well, I'm going to be taking my lunch break now," he told Arnold.

"Already?" Arnold asked without looking away from the computer screen in front of him. "You've been eating snacks all this time and you're still hungry?"

"Yeah, but it's also just nice to get out of the office and not think about work for a bit."

"Figures," Dr. Sorkin sighed. "We're trying to figure out computer programs and he's ready for lunch."

"Alright then, no one's stopping you."

Nedry got up, took his soda and most recent bag of chips and left the room, shutting it behind him. _OK, I've still got time_, he thought. Quickly, he headed won the hall, down the elevator to the first floor and began walking toward the exit. The guard on duty at the time nodded to Nedry, who was in deep thought, so he didn't see the guard. Nedry got in his car and drove downtown.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Nedry pulled into the parking lot of the local Mexican restaurant, Cafe Brio. He got out and briskly walked into the building. The restaurant was rather crowded; customers were talking amongst themselves at their tables, and Mexican waitresses hurried around the room, trying to serve everyone. Mexican chiefs yelled at each other in the usual fashion in the kitchen. _Perfect, it's nice and busy_, Nedry thought.

"Hello, sir," said the maitre'd. "How many will be dining with you today?"

"Uh, one other person. His name's, Dodgson. Is he here?"

"Yes, he's at that table by the window."

Nedry nodded and rushed over to him. "Yo! Dodgson!" he said as he sat down. The man he was sitting across from was named Lewis Dodgson; he had a straw fedora with a brown rim on his head and was wearing tortoise-shell wayfarer sun glasses, a red polo shirt and light gray slacks. Presumably, the hat and glasses were to make him look less conspicuous.

"You shouldn't use my name," Dodgson responded.

Nedry chuckled. He stood up and proclaimed, "Dodgson! Dodgson! We've got Dodgson here!" No one in the restaurant even looked in their direction. He sat back down and turned to Dodgson. "See? Nobody cares." Then he noticed the hat Dodgson was wearing. "Nice hat, what are you trying to look like? A secret agent?" Nedry removed the hat from Dodgson's head.

"So, you probably want the money," Dodgson said. He retrieved a small duffel bag and handed it to Nedry, who eagerly accepted.

"How much is in here?"

"$50,000. That's for the information you're about to give me right now. Another $50,000 will be given to you at our next meeting."

"Alright then."

"So what's the scoop?"

Nedry sat the bag beside him and began to explain. "Well, I don't remember what I told you last . . ."

"You, Arnold, Sorkin and Wu were programming the time portal. You had some sort of technical problems and couldn't get it to work."

"Oh yeah. So, we just tested the time portal today, and to my surprise, we solved the bug problems and–"

"Wait, tell me all the details," Dodgson said. "If we hope to obtain that technology, we need to know how to work it and fix any bugs."

"But that's the thing. They were _all_ fixed! Today!"

Dodgson leaned in closer. "But that means the prototype should be working. Are you telling me . . . that you four have created a working time portal?"

"Yes."

"You're kidding."

"No, I'm not. I'm dead serious. The two pistons fire energy to the center of the empty space in between them and after they fuse, this ball of light and energy appears and–"

"And what does the time portal look like?"

"It's a glowing orb of light with what looks like these shards of glass floating and swirling around it. It's pretty amazing."

"Did you travel through it?"

"No, but Henry and Hammond did. Two giant dragonflies came through and they're kept in InGen's biology department."

"Two giant dragonflies came through the time portal? You're sure they're from the past?"

"These dragonflies have a wingspan of over two feet."

Dodgson nodded. "OK, is there anything else I need to know?"

"Nope. That's pretty much it."

"Alright then. This is great. I appreciate the information you gave me."

"Hey, when I get paid, I'm yours."

"When can I meet with you again?"

"Soon, but I'm not sure exactly when. I don't know when the next substantial update is."

"OK. Just remember, once you feel that the prototype is progressed enough so that we have all the data we need, you need to thwart their progress. Otherwise they'll be ahead."

"Don't worry, Dodgson. You can count on me."

* * *

**A/N: These early chapters aren't nearly as adventuresome as later ones I plan to write, but they're necessary in order to build up the story so that when it gets to the adventure-filled parts, it won't seem hollow. I know some of you might want to read about action and dinosaurs and stuff, but these chapters are crucial for character development. Without that, the story won't be nearly as good. Don't worry though, soon we'll have some actual dinosaurs in the story. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Please be sure to favorite, follow and review on this story. Next week, look forward to when I will start taking these three perspectives on the story (Dr. Grant's, Henry's and Nedry's) and link them together, slowly but surely. R&r!**


	5. An Irresistible Offer

**JurassiQuest – Chapter 5: An Irresistible Offer**

**A/N: The story is moving right along isn't it? We're finally at chapter five and in this chapter, we'll catch back up with Hammond, Dr. Grant, Ellie and Luke. Also expect another familiar character along the way. Remember, if you have any questions, please be sure to ask, and if you'd like to criticize this story, do constructive criticism. Also be sure to stay tuned for a special announcement at the end of the chapter. Please enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.**

* * *

"So, what are you saying, Mr. Hammond?" Ludlow asked. Peter Ludlow was the executive officer of InGen and Hammond's nephew. He was quietly spoken, bespectacled and aged of about 40. Though Hammond was in charge of InGen, it was Ludlow, the second-in-command who actually made InGen a functional company. Right now, he was in front of InGen's Board of Directors, who all sat at a long table; Ludlow's uncle, who had just finished discussing his latest proposition was on the opposite end from him that Friday afternoon. "Are you saying you actually traveled back in time?" Ludlow asked. "The prototype works?"

"Yes! That's exactly what I'm saying!" Hammond answered, clearly excited.

"And you know that you traveled back in time?"

"Yes. See, we found some giant dragonflies – _Meganeura_. As a matter of fact, they're back in the biology labs as we speak."

"Giant dragonflies?"

"_Meganeura_ were extinct until we accidentally brought them back. Our prototype works and it's safe for human use."

Ludlow nodded. "OK, so let me get this straight. You want permission to basically expand InGen's area of study; we'll be using the time portal to study the ancient world?"

"Correct."

"So, what's the problem?"

"Well, we don't have anyone here specialized in field study. All of our scientists work in the labs. As Dr. Wu pointed out to me earlier, the scientists we currently have working on the time-travel project are also working in other fields that are about to yield produce. I need to bring other scientists into this project. We need scientists who are experts in their field, specifically paleontology and field biology."

"I thought you wanted this project to be kept a secret outside the walls of our facility."

"True, but we should be able to stop them from spreading word about it until we're ready for the world to know."

"So why do you need our permission? We don't have the authority to stop you."

"Well, we might need to financially convince these people to join our company," Hammond explained. "I don't want to give too many details away until they get here, therefore they might not come. And I'll need a good sum of money, possibly thousands of dollars. Plus, we need to pay them to keep their mouths shut so they don't spread the word about what we're doing here until we are ready. I need the permission to spend that much money."

"Alright then." Then he addressed the other board members. "OK, all in favor of Hammond's proposition please raise your hand."

Hand after hand went up. Hammond smiled to himself. _Perfect_.

"Now, all who oppose." Only one hand was raised. "What's your concern, Sam?"

Sam said, "Isn't this out of our zone? I mean, this is a bioengineering company, right? We're supposed to study things related to bioengineering."

"But that's the whole point," Hammond explained. "This might be able to use information we get from the times of the past for bioengineering purposes. Besides, the time portal might lead us to other, unforeseen money-making opportunities."

"Well, you have our permission," Ludlow said. "Give us a list of the people we need and the date you want them at our facility."

"Thank you."

Hammond grasped his cane, left his chair and walked out of the room. _I have just the right paleontologist for the job_, Hammond thought.

* * *

25-year old Billy Brennan was an associate professor at the Black Hills Institute and was in charge of the operations while Dr. Grant wasn't at the dig site. It was a hot Saturday afternoon and they were still unearthing the fossilized skeleton of the _Velociraptor_.

Billy was lying on the dry earth, brushing loose rock particles off the fossil when one of his colleagues, Cheryl, said, "Billy, I don't think I'm doing this right."

Billy got up and lied down next to her. "What is it?"

"I can never tell what's rock, and what's bone," she said.

Billy smiled. "Well, technically it's all rock. The bone material is replaced with minerals that turn it into rock during the fossilization process. But you can feel the difference, see?" He gently grasped her fingers and lightly rubbed them over the rocks, saying, "Rough . . ." and then as he lightly rubbed her finger over the fossil, he added, "Smooth."

Cheryl giggled. She glided her fingers over his chin. "Rough," she said. Then she lightly rubbed them over his lips. "Smooth."

Billy rolled his eyes and swatted her playfully. "Stop, will you?" he kidded.

Just then, a familiar brown pickup truck drove toward the dig site, parking alongside the resident trailer – Dr. Grant.

Alan, Ellie and Luke got out of the car.

"Here they come," Billy announced as he got up to meet them. As he approached he overheard Grant and Luke talking.

"But Dad, you said we'd be able to go mini-golfing today!" Luke argued. "You promised!"

"I know, Luke, but I'm afraid we don't have time tonight," Grant said back. "We have to finish up as much as we can here at the dig. I want this skeleton out of the ground before we have to pack up in four weeks." He looked up and saw Billy. "Ah, Billy."

"Hey, Dr. Grant. Ellie. Luke. So how'd it go?" The three of them started walking toward one of the research tents.

Grant grunted while Ellie said, "Well . . . it could have gone better if Dr. Baselton would lay off."

"Think you'll be invited back to do another lecture?"

Grant grunted. "After what happened last night, not likely."

"But that's the only time you've been invited to give a lecture in the past four months!" Billy exclaimed. "Don't they understand? We need the money to do more research? How do they expect us to prove your theories if they don't–"

"They don't _want_ to support us. They don't want to because they think we're just a bunch of professional amateurs."

"Professional amateurs?"

"Yeah, infamous amateurs with undeserved PhD's. But on the bright side, it's never too late to change your major, Billy."

"I'm gonna miss this place," Ellie said. "I don't know what I'd do if we had to stop the digs."

"We will at the rate we're going. We're losing money faster than the amount of time it would take for a pack of raptors to make a kill."

"A pack of _intelligent_ raptors," Ellie said as she grasped Grant's hand.

"I don't know what we're going to do. Money's always been hard to find, but now, people just don't give time of day to people like us. They think we're a bunch of hotshot losers who don't deserve the chance to try. Who knew one theory would just ruin our profession."

"Why can't you just not talk about your theory?" Billy suggested.

"Because Baselton's there. If he's there, he'll bring it up. Every time – and I do mean _every – _he's at my lectures, even the small and poorly advertised ones. And if he's there, _he_ asks about my theory. He wants to derail my name, that's all. Even when I don't mention my theory, he brings it up; unfortunately, I'm forced to talk about it because if I don't then people – specifically the press – think there's something suspicious going on. So I might as well mention my theory and try to protect it the best I can."

"When do you think we'll have to pack up?" Ellie asked.

"Four weeks."

"Three," Billy said.

Grant, Ellie and Luke stopped walking, shocked.

"Three?" Grant asked. "I thought we had more money than that."

"I had to rent some equipment. It's in the research tent if you want to see–"

"Dr. Grant! Dr. Grant!" exclaimed Ben, another student. "We found something in that hillside." Ben pointed to a rocky hill about 50 yards behind him. It was short and relatively steep and some of it was blocked by bushes. Ben revealed several fossils in his hands: a claw and two post-maxilla bones.

Grant took the claw and studied it closely; it wasn't the claw of a raptor, he knew this for sure, but it was definitely a theropod claw. Then he looked at the other bones. _Looks like a theropod, a big one_, he thought. _Betcha it's a carnosaur. Perhaps Acrocanthosaurus_. "Where'd you find this, again?"

"The hillside over here, come on."

Ben led the other four to the hillside where two other paleontologists were standing, one male and one female. Grant's jaw dropped when he saw bones sticking from out of the hillside. The bones were almost invisible to an amateur, but Grant's trained eye was able to make out a skull. The skull was a little elongated and about four feet in length. The tips of knife-like teeth protruded from the rock. What surprised Grant even more was that there appeared to be several vertebrae extending from the back of the skull. Could this be an articulated and complete skeleton?

"We barely noticed the claw Ben has on the ground while walking by," said the female student. "It's a pretty big theropod."

Grant nodded.

"It's definitely a large theropod, a carnosaur," Ellie stated. "There's only one carnosaur that large found in this region."

"_Acrocanthosaurus_," Ellie and Alan said at once.

_Acrocanthosaurus_ was the apex predator that once lived in this area. It was almost the size of _Tyrannosaurus_, but smaller and it had strong and clawed arms and a ridge running along its neck, back and tail. It would have used its size to take down sauropods.

"How big do you think it is, Dad?" Luke asked.

Grant walked closer to the skull, using it to guesstimate the size of the animal. "Well, this creature's at least 30 feet long," he said, "perhaps longer. This specimen is very unique." The excitement in Grant's eyes vanished when he realized his team would not be able to dig up these valuable finds. He'd barely have enough time to get the _Velociraptor_ skeleton out of the ground, let alone time to even start excavating this _Acrocanthosaurus_. Things were moving too fast.

"What do you want us to do?" Ben asked.

Reluctantly, Grant said, "Well, we won't have enough time to dig up these fossils, so just gather any loose fossils you can find and cover up the rest so that it's protected from the elements. We'll have the Black Hills Institute send out another team from another museum to dig this up."

The students nodded and quickly got to work. Ellie turned to Billy.

"You said you have something to show us," Ellie said.

Billy nodded. "Yes, it's in the tent."

* * *

"Meet the future of paleontology," Billy announced as he showed the Grant's and Ellie a new machine he rented. "It's a rapid prototyper."

Luke watched with intrigue as the machine carved out some object it had inside of it. The computer monitor next to it, run by paleontologist named Paul, showed the diagram of a _Velociraptor_ skull. "What's the machine doing?" Luke asked.

"I uploaded the data from the CAT scans we did on the raptor skull," Billy explained, "and this thing _sculpts_ it, one layer at a time!"

Grant went over to the computer and looked at the monitor. "So wait, you lost me, this thing–" he pointed at the monitor, which instantly became fuzzy with static for a brief second.

"What did you do?" Paul asked.

"He touched it," Ellie said, giggling. "Dr. Grant isn't computer compatible."

Ellie was right. Dr. Grant hated computers. He didn't like working with them in the slightest. Many of his colleagues thought of him as old fashion, but he didn't care so long as he was able to study dinosaurs.

Grant said, "So tell me what you did again?"

"OK, the CAT scans we did on the raptor skull, you remember those?" Billy asked. Grant nodded. "That data – skull dimensions and the size and shapes of different sections of the skull – was uploaded to this computer. The prototyper is connected to the computer, which then sculpts the section of the raptor skull we want." The prototyper made a _ding_ sound. "It's done."

Billy opened the machine and retrieved a small object carved of wood. It looked a little like a body organ, but Grant knew instantly what it was.

"I give you the resonating chamber of a _Velociraptor_," Billy said proudly.

Luke was shocked. "A resonating chamber? The part of the skull that enabled raptors to talk to each other?"

Billy nodded. "Listen to this." He blew through a hole near one end of the chamber and out the other end came a rather chilling sound – the raspy snarl of an animal from a forgotten world. Chills went down Grant's spine as he listened. He gently took the device from Billy and studied it. Though he wasn't into computers, he was astonished just what technology could do. In his hands, he was holding another piece of the puzzle to understanding the _Velociraptor_, the creature he'd spent years studying.

"Wow," Ellie breathed, "it's amazing."

"It's incredible, Billy," Grant complimented. "Really, it is. I'm sad to say it's just a little bit late."

"Dr. Alan Grant?" said a voice from behind.

Grant, Ellie, Luke and Billy turned around in surprise to see an elderly man standing at the front of the tent. His hair was white in color and he wore a straw hat on his head. He held a cane in one of his hands that appeared to have a golden oval-shaped object on top of it. "You're Dr. Alan Grant, aren't you?" the man said with a smile.

"Yes, that's me," Grant said. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, I've got a little proposition for you," he said. "Do you have a place we can chat?"

Grant looked at Ellie. She shrugged.

* * *

_What a strange little man,_ Grant thought as the man led him and Ellie to the trailer. Once they got inside, the man acted as if the place was his own, getting out cups of iced tea for the three of them. Finally, glasses of drinks in their hands, they went into a little sitting area, also in the trailer.

"So who on earth do you think you are?" Grant asked.

The man turned and said, "Oh, excuse my manners. I'm John Hammond, and I must say I'm glad to finally meet you in person, Dr. Grant. I can see my 20,000 a year has been well-spent."

Grant gasped. Hammond, he was the CEO of the company who was responsible for much of his dig team's remaining funding. If it weren't for this company, Grant would have had to pack up the dig site months ago. The three of them sat down.

"You're the CEO of . . .," Ellie began, "I'm sorry, I forgot the name of your company."

"InGen. It's called InGen. International Genetic Technologies. We're a bioengineering company, but we're looking to, shall we say, expand our fields." Hammond cleared his throat. "So how are things in your field?"

"It's good," Grant said. "We're uncovering a _Velociraptor_ skeleton."

"What's that?"

"It's a relatively small carnivorous dinosaur. About six feet tall, long snout, binocular vision, has strong dexterous forearms and killing claws on both feet. We've also discovered the fossil remains of an _Acrocanthosaurus_, a large theropod, slightly smaller than T. rex."

Then Hammond turned to Ellie. "And you're a paleontologist too, as I understand?"

"Yes, but I'm specifically a paleobotonist. I study ancient plants."

"Plants, ah yes, I suppose that would be a very important topic to study if you are to understand the world of dinosaurs. Amazing creatures aren't they?" Hammond leaned forward and said, "Now, to get to the point. As you both know, I own a company in California, and we've been working on . . . expanding our fields."

"That's good," Grant said.

"But here's the thing, for at least a temporary time, we are in need of a paleontologist."

Grant winced. "A paleontologist? What does paleontology have to do with bioengineering? I know you guys are expanding your fields of research, but that seems like a stretch."

"Not at all. I can't say exactly what at this moment, but my proposition is going to include a temporary job opportunity for you." He looked at Sattler. "Of course, I'd like to have the opinion of a paleobotonist as well."

The word 'job' peeked Grant's interest. "What's the job?"

"Well, that's a bit confidential at the moment, but I can say that, in a nutshell, it's going to involve . . . a bit of exploration into the untouched beauty of nature with a team consisting of a few other scientists and you will be performing studies."

Grant's enthusiasm dropped. _Hammond's desperate if he wants a paleontologist to go on a naturalist hike_, Grant thought, _you'd think he'd be able to find a biologist for the job._

"I know what you're thinking," Hammond said, referring to Grant's facial expression. "And I'm sorry if the information I'm giving you is a little vague, but it's _that_ confidential. So what do you say?"

"Well, the job your talking about seems really suited for a biologist. I can recommend some highly qualified–"

"No, you're the one. I can tell instantly about people. It's a gift."

"Look, Hammond, you make a swell offer, but I don't think we have the time. See, this dig team's running a little low on funds. Over the past few months, the amount of money we've had for the project has been steadily decreasing and this is going to be our last fossil dig. It will probably end in about three weeks. We are just digging up a new raptor skeleton and three weeks is barely enough time to–"

"Well I could compensate you by fully-funding your dig," Hammond offered.

Grant's winced again. Did the man just say _fully_ fund? "I'm sorry?"

"If I can get you two to come to my facility in California, I can fully-fund your work here for a further three years."

Grant couldn't believe his ears. He looked at Ellie. She nodded eagerly, knowing opportunities like this were rare. The paleontologist smiled and nodded. "OK! We'll do it!"

"Yes!" Ellie said.

"Excellent! I have a chopper that can take us directly to Palo Alto California tonight!"

"Tonight?"

"Yes. Is there a schedule conflict? If so I can rearrange the flight so that–"

"Oh no," Grant said quickly, "there's no such conflict. We'll just have to pack up and get ready to go."

"Fine, so long as it's not too much of a rush." Hammond got up and held out his hand. "Well, it was a pleasure meeting both of you and I look forward to working with you a bit more."

"Yes, it was a pleasure to meet you too," Grant said as he shook Hammond's hand. "And thank you so much!"

Ellie gave Grant a high-five and hugged him tightly.

* * *

Luke watched as Billy cleaned out the prototyper. Cheryl came into the tent and said, "You almost finished with your toy, Billy?"

Billy grinned. "It's not a toy. This just so happens to be state-of-the-art technology. It's so amazing, even Dr. Grant was impressed."

Cheryl looked impressed. "Oh was he? That's shocking, considering how much the man hates most technology." She paused before she started heading back outside. "Well, when you're finished we're waiting for you," she grinned gleefully and waved. Billy waved back and she left.

"What's up with you and her?" Luke asked.

"Cheryl?" Billy asked. "She's a colleague."

"Seems a little more than a colleague if you asked me."

Billy continued cleaning out the machine. "So . . . how are you and your dad doing?"

"How are we doing? Same as the last time we talking, Billy." Luke sighed. "He just doesn't understand me."

"I see."

"We've hardly had any time to spend together lately. He's so busy with his job. I mean, I know he needs to stay busy to do what he can to make money, but . . . I miss the dad that would look forward to going to the movies with me or other stuff we used to do together."

Billy walked next to Luke. "Well, your father's been pretty tied up lately. I'm sure that's the only reason."

"No it's not. Even before the financial problems, our time together has really decreased. It's this job!" He paused before continuing his speech. "I don't know, Billy, I know he's my dad and I shouldn't blame him for being busy, it's just that . . . he always seems to put his work ahead of me. I just don't know what to do."

Billy nodded, understandably. What Luke liked about Billy, was that even if he had never gone through a certain situation himself, he could understand and comprehend. Billy was almost like the older brother he never got.

"Well," Billy said, "sometimes, if you love someone, you have to meet them halfway."

"Halfway?"

"Yeah, squeeze in anytime you have with him. You might not get him out of the work field right away, but you just have to seek anytime you have to spend with him."

"You mean, like maybe I should take more interest in what he's doing?"

"Yeah, something like that. Just be creative. Spend as much time with your dad as you can, even if it's while he's working. He'll get the idea eventually."

Luke nodded. "Alright Billy, thanks."

Luke and Billy noticed Grant, Ellie and the peculiar old man exiting the trailer. Grant and Ellie seemed more chipper than usual, especially since the financial issues. While the old man left for his car, Grant and Ellie walked toward the other diggers.

"Guys, I have an announcement to make," Grant said. "I need you all to gather around."

Billy and Luke joined the other paleontologists near the _Velociraptor_ excavation site.

Grant began to speak. "Firstly, I appreciate all the hard work you guys have put into making this happen. I know it's been tough for all of you, working longer in the hot sun than we did before, but I have some news that I think is definitely going to lighten your spirits." He glanced at Ellie before continuing. "Dr. Sattler and I are going to be out of town this weekend and will be back on Monday."

Gasps were heard from the other fossil hunters.

"Gone? Where are you going?" asked a female student.

"We're going to California. I don't know exactly what we'll be doing there at this moment, but if we go, we'll be able to continue digging."

"Wait, where's the money coming from?" Cheryl asked.

"The company we're going to visit is going to fund our digs for a further three years!"

The others cheered.

"So, until we return, Billy's in charge." Dr. Grant went on, saying a few closing words and then everyone got back to work.

Luke approached his father. "Hey Dad, can I come?"

"I'm afraid not, son," Grant said. "You're going to stay here."

Luke sighed. "Sure, Dad."

* * *

Half an hour later, as Grant gave a few of the students some last minute instructions, Billy approached him.

"Dr. Grant, can I speak to you a minute?"

"Sure."

"I think you should let Luke join you on your trip."

"I can't. He's only going to get in the way."

"But Dr. Grant," Billy explained, "your son in 15 years old. 15! He's a teenager. Pretty soon, he's going to graduate and have business affairs of his own and it will be too late to build back up that father-son relationship. I mean, look at the facts. When was the last time you had quality time with Luke? Time's a rapidly-slipping thing. If you want to build a strong relationship with him, you need to do it now."

"I don't see how having him come along would–"

"Look, we both know you've been really busy. You haven't been spending as much time with Luke as you used to. A lot of teenagers in his situation use mischief to get attention drawn upon themselves. Albeit, it's bad attention, but it's still attention. Luke hasn't gone to that extreme. One day, it will be too late because he'll have life affairs of his own. I know we've all been busy, but you need to spend more time with him before it's too late."

Grant was silent for a moment. Was what Billy had said really true? In fact, Grant really couldn't remember the last time he'd had some quality time with his son. It hadn't been intentional, but he supposed that he just got carried away with his work.

Then Grant said, "You know what, Billy? Maybe you're right. I guess we haven't had a lot of time together lately. It's just that I've been so busy lately that I've kind of . . . forgotten. Thanks, Billy."

"Anytime."

"Come on, Alan!" Ellie exclaimed. "If we're going to catch that helicopter, we're going to need to pack right now!"

* * *

**A/N: As you've seen from the first few chapters of this story, Luke and Grant's relationship is rather strained. Expect this to play a large role later on in the story. What do you guys think will happen next?**

**Special Announcement: As many of you might recall, I mentioned in the previous story I just finished (Jurassic World: Return to Isla Nublar) that I would publish several chapters for two of the stories I'm working on at present, this one and Phineas and Ferb's Dinosaur Adventure, and whatever one got the most attention would be the one I'd focus on. Well, it turned out that Phineas and Ferb's Dinosaur Adventure has gotten the most amount of attention, so I'll focus only on that story until it is completed. This also means that Jurassic World will be going on hiatus in a few weeks. Don't worry, it won't be too long of a hiatus, because the Phineas and Ferb story is only going to be some 8-9 chapters long. Thank you for reading Jurassic World up to this point everyone. I look forward to continuing it once I finish the other story. So that you know when I publish the next chapter for this story, please be sure to follow it. Also be sure to favorite and review and I'll see you soon. R&r!**


	6. Alisha Roland

**JurassiQuest – Chapter 6: Alisha Roland**

**A/N: I'm back everyone! I've finished "Phineas and Ferb's Dinosaur Adventure", which was a blast to write! I am so glad those of you who reviewed it enjoyed the story! I hope to write another Phineas and Ferb fanfic sooner than later. For now though I can finally continue with this story! In this chapter, you will be introduced to some new characters that we're going to be seeing a lot of later on.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.**

* * *

A young woman sipped her iced tea as she sat back in her chair at the _Buena Comida_ restaurant in southern Baja California, only a few hundred miles from the border of Mexico. Her name was Alisha Roland; a Hispanic woman of 26 (though she could have passed as only 18-20), she was a survival expert born and raised in northern Mexico, near the border. Her long dark brown hair was pulled back into a pony tail, her sleeveless shirt was dark brown and her shorts were colored of a dull green.

As has already been mentioned, the physically-fit Alisha was a survival expert – despite being mostly self-taught, she was one of the most highly qualified in her field. A natural-born adventurist, she'd been seeking out her travel experiences ever since she was a little girl. Her travels have taken her to many exotic places around the world like the African savannah, some remote rainforests of Panama, the Australian outback and even the mountains of Patagonia. Not more than three years or so ago, on her trip to Panama, Alisha was involved with a ill-fated jungle hike in which she became separated from her group and was forced to survive in the rainforest by herself for 21 days. This sort of experience would forever alter a normal person's ego, but Alisha shrugged it off, considering it "just a trip off the regularly used path," as she said in a television interview.

Alisha made her living as a backcountry guide, survival instructor, writer, public speaker and hosting a television show called _Live It Wild_, in which she educates people about how to survive out in nature – how to take a step back into the natural world, away from the hustle and bustle of civilization.

She was in deep thought when she heard a ruckus coming from the other side of the restaurant. She glanced over and observed some male tourists yelling at a nearby waitress, telling her to come to their table. The waitress approached the table, only to continue getting yelled at by the tourists. Alisha couldn't hear exactly what they were saying, but based on their hand gestures there was something about the food they didn't like.

Alisha sighed and rolled her eyes. _Tourists_, she thought. _That bunch apparently has no appreciation for the different cultures if they're complaining about the cultural food._

Alisha looked up as her blonde friend, Cathy Hamilton approached the table carrying their food on a platter. "OK, we've got pinto bean burgers and with a side of Spanish fries. You wanted the spicy salsa, right?" Cathy asked, sitting the platter down on the table.

"Si, Cathy," Alisha answered. "I'm so hungry right now, I could eat a herd of those water buffaloes we encountered in India."

Cathy laughed as she sat down. She and Alisha had been friends since high school and the two would often host _Live It Wild_ together. They both had a great admiration of nature, but they were quite different as well – Cathy was a more girly than the tomboyish Alisha; she even had a boyfriend while Alisha had never the interest in being in such a relationship.

Alisha said, "I've got the tickets for Egypt, so we can salir rápidamente, este Lunes."

"Si," Cathy responded. "I can't wait to get there. Oddly enough, we've been almost everywhere else in Africa, but not the Sahara."

"Well, not everywhere." Alisha picked up some french fries to eat. "We haven't gone to Mount Kilimanjaro, or the Kalihari Desert, or the Congo. We've barely touched the surface in Africa."

Cathy shrugged, biting into her pinto-bean burger. "Oh, um, I almost forgot, I got a call earlier from a company farther north in California. I think it was a genetics company called um . . . I think it was called InGen."

Alisha winced. _InGen? I've never heard of InGen. Must be a privately-owned company_. "And what did they want from you?"

"Oh, they didn't want me. They said they had a special proposition for you."

"Proposition? You mean like a job?"

"Sort of. They didn't tell me too much, but they said that they are planning an scientific expedition and they're in need of one of the world's best survival experts–"

More laughing was heard from the tourists' table that Alisha had been watching earlier. One of the tourists was still yelling at the waitress – he had wispy blond hair and a freckled face, you might even say that he _looked _obnoxious. His friends laughed wildly behind him. The poor waitress girl looked bewildered and confused at the treatment she was receiving. Alisha shook her head. She turned to Cathy. "Excuse me a moment."

She abruptly got up from her chair and stomped over to the table where the tourists were. "What's going on, here?" she asked.

"This poor excuse for a waitress is cute, but can't seem to tell beans apart from rice!" the tourist who had been yelling at the waitress said, as if proud of his actions. "I was telling her she would make a better beauty model than a waitress any day." He picked up a Spanish fry and bit into it. "Plus these fries are too crusty."

"¿Cómo iba yo a saber que cambió su pedido!" the waitress exclaimed.

The tourist said to Alisha,"You work here, girl?"

"You go," Alisha told the waitress, "I'll handle these lunáticos." Then she said to the tourist, "My name is Alisha Roland, not '_girl_'."

"Oh hey I know you. You're that survival woman on that Living Wild show."

"It's the _Live It Wild_ show, if you must know."

The tourist snickered. "You don't really call yourself a survival expert, do you? A girl isn't a quarter of the survivalist the male survival experts are."

"You sir," Alisha said, "are no gentleman."

The terribly obnoxious tourist and his friends laughed.

"Was that supposed to be some kind of insult?" the tourist asked.

"I can think of none greater."

The tourist looked at his friends and laughed again. "Go find a shopping mall, woman, and leave us alone."

Alisha grinned irritatedly. "What do I have to do to pick a fight with you? Surely your not scared of being beaten by a girl."

"You kidding me?" The tourist snickered. "I could take you with one arm tied down."

* * *

Outside the restaurant, Cathy tied Alisha's left wrist to her belt in the back of her pants with a napkin. A crowd of people had gathered to watch the fight take place.

"I don't feel good about this," Cathy said, "if you get hurt–"

"I'll be fine, Cath," Alisha answered. She turned to face the tourist.

"You know," the tourist said, "I actually meant I could take you with _my_ arm tied–"

Alisha punched the tourist in the side of his jaw. Stunned but very resistant, the tourist charged forward. Both of his fists were balled and ready to hit their targets. He wasn't very happy that a girl had gotten the first hit. He swung; Alisha dodged swiftly and kicked the tourist with her right knee. The man howled in pain and fell to his knees. He quickly got back to his feet and tried to punch Alisha. Once again Alisha dodged. The two of them circled each other, looking the opponent squarely in the eyes. Tensions were high at this point. Cathy bit her lower lip, hoping she wouldn't have to see her friend end up in the hospital.

About a minute passed, not a single punch had been made by either fighter. They were looking for weakness in the other–

The tourist swung wildly, flailing his arms in either direction. Alisha knocked her fist into his, causing him to punch himself in the face.

"Ouch!" he exclaimed, now bearing a black eye. "That does it–"

Alisha punched the tourist's forehead; he fell back. The crowd cheered and Alisha huffed to herself as she walked back toward her friend. But behind her, the tourist was getting back up. Anger was showing through his eyes; he wanted his revenge on the woman. He ran toward her with fists poised to attack when suddenly . . .

_WHACK!_ Alisha swung around and lodged her fist into his nose. The tourist screamed as his body fell to the gravel-covered ground. The bloody nose he now had grew more apparent on his face. Once again the crowd cheered. Alisha watched with pride as the tourist's friends rushed to his aid and hauled him back to their car. She shook her head at the tourist's lunacy.

Cathy untied her friend. "Oh my gosh! Way to go, girl!" The two friends high-fived. With this latest incident over, they returned to their table.

"Sorry about that," Alisha apologized. "I just get so frustrated with obnoxious people. What were you saying?"

"I was saying that the genetic company InGen has a job opportunity for you. Remember? They're conducting some kind of expedition and they'll need a survival expert."

"That's all they told you?"

"Well, they said that they'd need you by tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. sharp."

"What? Tomorrow? Couldn't they have given more notice?"

"They said they were hand-selecting people for the expedition at the last minute. Oh, and they mentioned that they're prepared to offer you a rather large sum of money for the job."

Alisha sighed. _Depending on what this job is, we'll have to cancel our trip to Egypt_. "How am I supposed to know if I want to take this offer if I don't know anything about the job?"

"They also said that if you are interested, you can visit their facility at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, which is tomorrow. They're going to pay you for just arriving."

Needless to say, Alisha was confused. Firstly, why would a genetics company even want a survival naturalist? Secondly, why were they _paying_ her just to be there? Something wasn't adding up to her. This made her curious. "Depending on whether or not I get this job and when they would want me, I'm afraid we'll have to reschedule our Egypt adventure. Later I'm going to call that company that called you to get specifics."

"You're going?" Cathy said.

"Yes, I am."

* * *

It was 3:00 in the morning; Dr. Henry Wu was standing in the darkness of his genetics lab, watching several rows of super computers sequenced the DNA from the amber and fossil bone specimens. He was impressed just how much this process had been working. The results from the computers were revealed on the rows of screens. These computers were not your average computers; in fact, they were far before their time. InGen had acquired such computers soon after they'd officially become a company. In fact, these computers were so state-of-the-art, that the DNA sequencing Henry had it start yesterday was almost complete for their first specimen!

"How's it coming along?" Dr. Sorkin asked, followed by Claire as they walked into the room.

"It's incredible," Henry whispered, "these computers are almost finished with the first sample."

"Wait," Claire said, "so you're saying we'll have enough DNA to clone a dinosaur?"

Henry shook his head. "Not from this one amber sample. In fact, there's very little usable DNA in the current amber specimen. It will take several sequencing procedures to get enough. Fortunately, we have no shortage of mosquito-filled pieces of amber."

Dr. Sorkin grinned. "I can't believe it. We're actually getting close to cloning these creatures. All we have to do after we sequence enough dinosaur DNA is create embryos, insert the embryo into the unfertilized egg of some species of reptile or bird and then we should be able to hatch a dinosaur."

"Amazing, isn't it?" Henry asked. "You know, now that we're so close to making these things . . . I've been thinking, how are we going to break our discovery to the world?"

There was a moment of silence. They all had been so concerned about answering the question of whether or not they could do it, they had not taken time to figure out what to do _when_ they actually did it. Of course, success was still months away, so there was still time to think about it.

"There's a question that's been on my mind," Claire said. "What are we going to do with the dinosaurs once they're recreated?"

"Well, it's a bit soon to be discussing that, don't you think?" Dr. Sorkin asked.

"Yes, I suppose it is, but it's a question that will have to be answered soon."

Henry nodded.

Suddenly, the computer in front of Henry beeped – the DNA was finished sequencing. The three scientists huddled around the computer screen, reading the results. What they were looking at with their own eyes was the genetic alphabet of an ancient species of dinosaur. The DNA of a bygone era was right before their eyes. It was amazing.

"Unfortunately," Henry said, "we won't be able to tell exactly _what_ the creature is because we don't have any genetic material to compare it with. However, we know it's from the upper Cretaceous sediments. I believe it could be a hadrosaur."

"A hadrosaur?" Claire asked.

"Duckbilled dinosaurs. I'm guessing that because hadrosaurs are the most commonly dinosaur remains found in the upper Cretaceous, next to ceratopsians – horned dinosaurs – like _Triceratops_. The only way we'll be able to know for sure is to clone one, and then compare its anatomy to other dinosaurs of the fossil record."

"Looks like someone's been doing a little research on dinosaurs," Dr. Sorkin said. She glanced at her watch. "Well, I'm going to get some sleep before the scientists for the expedition come."

Claire nodded. "Yes, me too."

"You coming, Henry?"

Henry shook his head. "No. I'm going to stay here and set the computer up so it can start sequencing the next DNA sample that we extracted from the mosquito. This procedure can take hours, I need every chance I can get, especially if I'll be working on that time portal prototype."

Dr. Sorkin and Claire left the laboratory, leaving Dr. Wu alone. He typed in some orders into the keypad before him and the computer knew what to do. It began sequencing the next DNA sample, this time from the upper Jurassic.

* * *

7:00 a.m. Saturday morning.

Dr. Alan Grant was sitting in an InGen helicopter next to Sattler on one side and Luke on the other side. After he, Sattler and Luke had packed their backpacks, Hammond hustled them onto his helicopter, where they met a lawyer by the name of Donald Gennaro. Gennaro, aged 40, wore a city man's idea of hiking clothes, a hundred-dollar haircut and a your typical business suit.

Upon seeing Luke, Donald grew a little tense and wore a worried expression on his face. In fact, he was rather reluctant to allow Luke to come with them. After some convincing from Grant and Hammond, Gennaro relented. Luke glanced out the window at the building they'd be landing next to: International Genetic Technologies. It was a large corporate and laboratory building, probably about 200,000 square feet in area. Several trees lined the front of the headquarters.

_I can't believe I'm actually going on this trip_, Luke thought with glee. This had come as a surprise to him the night before when out of the blue, his father said that he could also be on the expedition. Luke wanted to hear more about what they were doing, but Grant said Hammond didn't reveal much more information than that. _Definitely looks like a genetics company, but I wonder what they do there. What do they want from my dad?_

"Well, someone's liking the place," Hammond said with a chuckle when he noticed Luke staring in amazement at the building. "It's a pretty large facility. Spared no expense."

"Yeah, I can tell," Luke said. Then, Luke recalled his last conversation with Tom over the phone early this morning. Tom was excited for Luke that he'd been allowed to go on his father's business venture and requested lots of pictures from the trip. Luke planned to text that they arrived safely the moment they landed.

Hammond announced, "When we land you'll be introduced to the other members of your team. We've hired some of the best people we could find for this expedition. And let me tell you, they weren't all easy to convince."

"How'd you get them to come then?" Ellie asked curiously.

"Money talks." Hammond laughed. "But hey, these people will be worth the price we're paying them. We spared no expense when it came to getting the right people for this."

Grant winced. Something wasn't making sense – why in the world were they being flown here. This part of California wasn't even remote! What kind of expedition would he be going on? He asked this question to Hammond. Hammond smiled and said, "You'll be briefed with the other members of your team. Don't worry, this will be right up your alley, Dr. Grant."

"We're going in for a landing," the pilot said. The helicopter stopped and began slowly descending down to the helipad beneath. The wind whipped up fallen leaves from trees nearby; it almost looked like a weak tornado.

Luke grinned from ear to ear as the helicopter landed on the ground; the whir of the blades began to die down. Things were about to get exciting!

* * *

"_International Genetic Technologies: We Make Your Future_" was what the sign in front of the door said. Grant, Ellie and Luke were briskly led by Hammond and Gennaro through the entry doors. Inside, they found a nice, large waiting area with a receptionist at the desk.

"Hello, Parker," Hammond greeted.

"Oh, good morning, Mr. Hammond," the man behind the desk said.

"Have the other members of the team arrived yet?"

"Yes, they have. They just arrived in the parking lot. I'm going to have a guard go and get them now."

"Excellent. Then we'll be able to–"

"Um, did you forget already, Hammond?" Gennaro asked with a tone of impatience. "You have _papers_ to look at."

"Oh yes, quite right. Um, Parker. Once everyone's together, why don't you give them a brief tour of the building. I shouldn't be more than half an hour. Meet us in the biology labs."

Without waiting for a reply, Gennaro hustled Hammond down the hall.

Parker gestured to Grant, Luke and Ellie. "Well, you might as well make yourselves comfortable while you wait. There's a drinking fountain down the hall if your thirsty."

* * *

Alisha shut her car door as she held her cellphone against her ear.

"No te preocupes, Cathy," Alisha told her friend, "I'll send you a lot of pictures. I doubt I'll be here that long anyway. I mean, this is a bioengineering company after all."

"Bioengineering?"

"Yeah." Alisha took a moment to scan the building with her eyes. The size of the complex was a bit of a shock to her. "I did some research on InGen on my way over here and it turns out that – you remember the company that created the sweet-smelling _E. coli_?"

"Si."

"Well, this is them."

"What does a bioengineering company want with you? I mean, you're an outdoors girl; most of their work is inside the building. What else did you learn about them?"

"Their website is pretty vague. Nothing on it would suggest they'd need a survivalist such as myself. I suppose I'll find out why they need me soon. Don't eat up all my tortillas while I'm gone." (Cathy was known to borrow food from Alisha when she wasn't home).

"Muy bien," Cathy answered with a laugh. "OK. Have fun!"

Alisha said goodbye and closed her phone in time to notice a man in a uniform approach her. He instructed her to follow him inside the building.

"Here goes nothing," she told herself as she swung her sack over her shoulder.

* * *

"I'm Dr. Alan Grant," Grant said as he introduced himself to another member of the team who'd just arrived. "And this is my girlfriend Dr. Ellie Sattler, and my son, Luke."

"Well, it's nice to meet all of you," the man said as he shook hands with the three of them. The man's name was Robert Muldoon.

Now Muldoon was, as far as appearance, was grim-faced, fortyish and British. Oddly enough, he was from Kenya where he was a famous game warden. He also was a consultant for wildlife preserves and zoos. He wore a UK slouch hat, a safari shirt that matched his khaki pants. Over his shoulder was a long tan-colored duffel bag. You could tell just by looking at him that he was someone whose voice commanded attention.

"So, how old are you, Luke?" Muldoon asked.

"I'm 15."

"15?" Muldoon nodded his head in approval. "You're almost a man." Then he turned to Grant. "So, do you know anything about this . . . _expedition_?"

Grant grinned. "I wish I did. Unfortunately, I was only given enough information to convince me to see this building."

"So what do you all do for a living?"

"I'm a paleontologist."

"Ah! A dinosaur hunter. Always been a dino-fan, myself. Especially like raptors."

"Interesting. I was digging up some raptor fossils before we came here. Ellie Sattler here is our team paleobotonist."

"You mean she studies ancient plants?"

Grant nodded.

"Well, this is going to be an interesting trip. None of us have any idea why we're here and we're all outdoorsy people in an bioengineering company. You know anything about this place?"

Grant shrugged. "Just that they're a bioengineering company and they help fund our digs. That's about it. Their website wasn't very helpful either."

Just then, a guard led a young woman and a middle-aged man with a large suitcase. Grant looked at them both from head to toe – the man had straight, neatly-combed graying hair, was wearing a safari hat, safari shirt and khaki pants. He bore no face hair, but he did have a pair of spectacles. He didn't look like the type of person who'd be going on an expedition into the wild. In fact, he looked more at home in an office building than anything. The woman was completely different. She was Hispanic and looked about 20 years of age. Her long dark brown hair was pulled back into a pony tail; she wore a sleeveless brown shirt underneath an open Navy green vest and brown shorts. She had fingerless gloves on her hands. This was the kind of woman who looked ready for anything.

"They're here," the guard told Parker.

"Really? Excellent." He left the desk and approached the group. "OK, so for those of you who don't know, I'm one of the receptionists at InGen. However I'll be taking you on a brief tour through the facility until Hammond's ready to brief you on your new job."

"Why can't you give us the briefing?" Muldoon asked.

"Frankly, I don't know too much about it. Besides, I think Hammond _wanted_ to leave you guys hanging," he added with a wink and a smile. "Hammond's always loved theatrics. Anyway . . ." he turned to the Hispanic girl. "You're Alisha Roland, correct?"

"Si," Alisha responded.

Ellie smiled. "Not Alisha Roland the survivalist."

"Yes, that's me."

"Oh my gosh! _Live it Wild_ is one of my favorite shows!"

"Really?" Alisha cracked a smile. "Well, I'm sure we'll be getting better acquainted then."

"And who's this guy?" Grant asked, referring to the man with the suitcase.

"My name's Dr. Bob Gerald," he said with a smile; it was the kind of smile you'd expect from a salesman. "I'm a geographer."

"So you make maps?" said Luke.

"Yes."

"That's it?"

"Well, it sounds simple when you put it that way, but it's really not that simple. See geography is the unique bridging between social sciences and natural sciences. There are two main branches of my field: human geography – that's studying the spatial aspects of human existence – and what I study: physical geography. I don't only make maps, but I also study patterns of climates, landforms, vegetation, soils and water. This helps all the other areas of science–"

"Yes, yes, fine," Parker interrupted. "I'm sure your job's _plenty_ interesting. But we really need to get going." He called to a woman nearby and said, "Hey Kailey, take over for me."

* * *

**A/N: In this chapter, we were introduced to two new OC's: Bob Gerald and Alisha Roland, and a new, but very familiar character if you're a Jurassic Park fan: Robert Muldoon. Being a survival expert, Alisha is going to be an interesting character as the story moves along. Before I started this chapter, I already had planned to have Grant, Luke, Sattler, Muldoon and Alisha on the expedition team, but I knew I needed at least one more main character to join them. I tried to think of who they might need for this expedition when it finally occurred to me: they're going to need maps! I think Bob will be a great addition to the story. I can't wait to write more about him, Alisha and the other characters. Next week, Hammond reveals all the secrets about the expedition and they might even disembark! I can't wait! Please be sure to favorite, follow and review on this story and I'll see you all next week! R&r!**


	7. Into the Past

**JurassiQuest – Chapter 7: Into the Past**

**A/N: This chapter should set the tone for the entire story! Expect our team of adventurers and scientists to finally use the time portal to meet some of the most amazing animals that have ever existed. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.**

* * *

Parker led Grant, Ellie, Luke, Muldoon, Alisha and Bob down the hall. "To your right is another bathroom," Parker explained. "But there's nothing extraordinary about them, so let's keep moving." Over the past 15 minutes, he'd been explaining how what they were going to be hearing was top secret and should not be shared before talking a bit about the company's history, like when it was founded. They were walking through the part of the facility devoted to offices when Grant whispered to Ellie, "You know what I think?"

Ellie grinned. "What?"

"I think I know what's going on here. Think about it, we've got – me, a paleontologist; you – a paleobotonist; a survival expert, a geographer, and a game warden. We're apparently going to some remote location."

"Where did you have in mind?"

"The Congo. See, it's the fact that they need a paleontologist and a geographer that helped me figure it out. I'd bet my bottom dollar that they're going to send us on a mission into the Congo to try and prove the existence of Mokele-mbembe."

Mokele-mbembe is a legendary dinosaur-like reptile that is said to live in remote regions of the Congo in Africa. Natives and others claimed to have seen the creatures, but as of yet, scientists had been unable to prove its existence. Many scientists thought the animal was only a misidentified, better-known animal, while others thought that it was nothing more than a myth.

Ellie frowned. "Why would a bioengineering company be interested in cryptozoology?" Cryptozoology is the study of "hidden animals", such as big foot, the Loch Ness monster and the yeti.

"Who knows," Grant said. He shook his head; why couldn't they have gotten another paleontologist for this? _I shouldn't be with this project_, Grant thought, _I need to be back at the dig site! Oh well, at least they're going to fully fund our dig._

As Parker continued talking about how the company had "spared no expense" on some of the amenities of this place, Luke spoke up.

"So what do you guys actually do here?" he asked.

"I was about to ask the same question," Muldoon said. "I mean, this is a nice building. No doubt about that. But it's hardly the place for me."

"I'm enjoying this tour," Bob objected.

"Don't worry folks, I'm just killing time," Parker said with a grin. "See, when Hammond and Gennaro are talking, they can be a bit long-winded. So instead of having you guys sitting around, I'm taking you around the place the pass the time."

"But this is a bioengineering company," stated Alisha, "so far your tour has revealed nothing about what you do here. I'd also like to know what we'll be doing here for this 'job'."

"Now if you'd like, I can take you directly to our business operations," Parker offered. "We're in the office section of the facility. Follow me this way everyone."

Parker led the group down several hallways before taking them through a catwalk that led them to another part of the facility. Then Parker began to speak. "Now, as you all know, our facility is a bioengineering company. But we've actually been considering moving beyond that, which I'm sure Hammond will brief you on. Let's look in this room to the right."

To the group's right was a window in front of a large room filled with computers and computer monitors. "This is our Control Center," Parker explained. "In this room lie the computer systems that fuel this amazing facility. Some of these super computers are among the most technologically advanced on the planet."

Then he led them to another room. Through the entrance door was a wide open room with quite a few long tables and chairs and desks to conduct science experiments and lab tests. As usual, this room was bustling with activity, scientists in white lab coats were either sitting in front of computer screens along the wall or standing near tables, huddling over their lab experiments.

Luke was dumbfounded by the room. He wasn't sure what they did in here, but whatever it was, it looked cool! Some computer monitors on a nearby wall flashed rows of letters; e.g. one of the lines read "GGCGCCGTTGATACTTT . . ." The 15-year old knew exactly what it was he was looking at: DNA letters. _DNA? I wonder what organism it belongs to._

"Welcome to the heart of the operations," Parker announced. "Here most of our geneticists are hard at work going through strand after strand of DNA."

"DNA?" Grant asked. "What type of DNA?"

"Depends on which department you're speaking of. Some of our scientists are busy working on sequences of elephant DNA, some might be sifting through strands of chicken DNA, some are . . . to tell you the truth, I really don't know what most of them are working on. I'm no geneticist myself."

Alisha glanced at a wall on the far side of the room. Glancing up at Grant she asked. On each shelf was a row of golden-colored pieces of what looked like amber stone. "Dr. Grant?" Alisha began, "you see that?"

Grant nodded. "Yeah."

Grant, Ellie and Alisha walked briskly over to the amber shelves; Parker, Luke, Bob and Muldoon followed. The little pieces of fossilized tree sap each bore a little insect in the center – perhaps a mosquito.

"Extraño," Alisha murmered to herself. "What are they doing with these?"

Ellie winced. "I'm not sure. Let's see . . . perhaps they're . . . um, yeah, I'm not sure."

"I see someone's taken interest in our amber collection," said one of the scientists who was previously sitting in front of a computer screen connected to the same wall as the amber shelves. The scientist was a young oriental with black hair.

"This is our head geneticist, Dr. Henry Wu," Parker introduced. "Dr. Wu, these are the new . . . people Hammond hired."

"I gathered as such," Henry answered. "Let me see, you're Drs. Grant and Sattler, and you're Alisha Roland, and . . . Bob Muldoon?"

Muldoon grinned. "Actually, I prefer to go by Robert."

"Robert." Then he looked at Luke. "And you are . . .?"

"Luke Grant," the boy answered. "Dr. Grant's my dad."

"I see. And who's that guy?" He was referring to the geographer.

"I'm Bob Gerald," was the reply. "I make maps."

"Alright then. I'm sure you are all wondering what we're doing in this room."

"It crossed my mind," Grant said.

"Well, we're actually doing a lot of different things. In this laboratory, we study everything from _E. coli_ to ancient DNA. Since you were all looking at the amber samples, I might as well start there."

"What rock layers are they from?" Ellie asked.

"Depends on which samples you're speaking of. Most of our samples are from Cretaceous sediments, while others are from the Jurassic or Triassic. And each one bears the frail, little body of a mosquito or other blood-sucking insect."

"Are you trying to record the genome of some ancient mosquitoes?" Alisha asked.

"Not exactly. We're actually looking for dinosaur DNA."

Grant asked. "Dinosaur DNA?"

"Yes. See, eons ago, these mosquitoes likely bit the dinosaurs when they were alive. Sometimes, after biting a dinosaur, the mosquitoes would land on tree trunks, get stuck in tree sap and become fossilized. The mosquito is preserved. Therefore, if the mosquito is preserved, shouldn't the blood of the animals they sucked be preserved as well?"

Muldoon asked, "How successful has that been?"

"Very successful, actually. We've been able to extract small amounts of Cretaceous dinosaur DNA at this point. The first samples were analyzed last night."

Grant nodded, in awe, as he glanced back at the monitors with the DNA letters flashing on them. "So . . . I'm looking at dinosaur DNA here?"

"Probably. We don't know yet, but the likelyhood is that it is dinosaur DNA."

"Wow," Ellie breathed. "Why haven't I heard of this discovery?"

"It's extremely confidential at the moment."

Grant stared at the computer screen in amazement. For years, he'd been studying these ancient animals as fossils, but now apparently scientists were able to find DNA! This was incredible. Who would have ever thought that–

"What are you going to use the DNA for?" Luke inquired.

"Well," Henry began, "it will be helpful to scientists because since DNA is the blueprint of a living thing, we'll be able to learn about its makeup – that is, everything from it's muscle tissues, to its brain to its outward appearance. It will take years to learn all that information of course. And there's also the exciting possibility of being able to clone a dinosaur."

Grant looked back at Wu. "_Clone_ a dinosaur? Are you serious?"

"Oh yes, I am. Of course, we're not quite at that stage. We've still got a truck load of issues to resolve before anyone can expect a cloned dinosaur, but I believe, given enough time, that feat can be accomplished. Technology is really an amazing thing. If you all accept the job opportunity, you'll be able to track our progress."

"This is interesting and all," Alisha started, "but I still don't see how this applies to us."

"Hammond will reveal everything when–"

Suddenly a high-pitched trumpet sound was heard as an elephant ran from behind a desk and toward the group.

"What on earth!" Muldoon exclaimed.

Alisha uttered, "Oh mi bondad! Is that an _elephant_?" The entire group was dumbfounded by what they saw.

The elephant stopped a couple of feet in front of the group and trumpeted again. It was a tiny little creature, standing less than nine inches tall.

Luke got down onto his knees and held his hand out toward the elephant. The little pachyderm sniffed his hand curiously with his trunk. Luke looked back at Henry. "You cloned an elephant?"

Grant got down onto his knees next to his son. "_Palaeoloxodon falconeri_, right?"

"Paleo-what?" Bob asked.

"That's the scientific name for the Pygmy elephant." Grant explained that there was once a population of dwarf elephants living in the Mediterranean during and near the end of the Ice Age. The elephants only grew about three feet tall.

Henry chuckled. "Amazing, isn't he? But little Dianthus here isn't a _Palaeoloxodon_. He's a genetically altered Asian elephant. Back in 2008, I turned off the genes that give an elephant its size."

"You guys are crazy," Muldoon breathed.

"I like to think of it as progress. Just ten years ago, this couldn't be accomplished. It was one of my first major accomplishments after I joined InGen."

Dianthus began rubbing his head against Luke's hand. Luke laughed. "He's so cute."

Ellie crouched down to touch the elephant on the head. "I've never seen anything like it," she whispered. Her feminine fingers brushed across his forehead.

Parker said, "Hammond's probably about ready to meet back up with them in the other biology department."

"You have another biology department?" Muldoon asked. "What should we expect in there? Giant-sized fleas that do tricks?"

* * *

Briskly, Parker and Henry led the others (with Dianthus trailing behind them) into the other biology department. This room was much like the other one, expect the tables and desks were shorter; more plants decorated the room as well. Unlike the other laboratory (the microbiology lab) though, this one (the biology lab – for the study of biology in general) was mostly empty. They were greeted by the only two women – the only ones present in the room; they introduced themselves as Dr. Laura Sorkin – co-head geneticist of InGen – and Claire, another laboratory scientist.

"So what do you think of InGen so far?" Dr. Sorkin asked the group.

"It's amazing," Grant said. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that you guys have dinosaur DNA and a pygmy elephant."

Claire laughed. "Yeah, it's pretty mind boggling. Isn't that right, Dianthus?" She looked over to a nearby doggy bed where the little elephant was taking a nap.

"Do you realize how much money you guys could get by mass producing elephants like that?" Bob asked. "Everyone would want a pet elephant."

"True, but elephants are slow breeders," Henry said. "We wouldn't be able to meet the demands. Hammond insists that if we ever do start selling things to the public, they have to be affordable for everyone, not just the super rich. Altering the genes in order to make an elephant breed faster isn't nearly as easy as it is to shrink an elephant."

A moment or two later, Hammond rushed through the doors of the laboratory. Behind him was Gennaro and another man with glasses and a business suit – Ludlow.

"Ah! Welcome, friends! I am glad to have you all made it here!" Hammond exclaimed. "I'm sure you're all wondering why you're here and what your job opportunity is."

"If I hear that one more time today . . ." Grant murmured.

Alisha crossed her arms. "I do hope you're actually going to tell us now. Because even though I'm pretty impressed by what I've seen so far in this building, I haven't seen anything I'd like to do for a living."

"Yes, I'm going to tell you know." Hammond cleared his throat. "Now, let me start out by saying thank you for all coming to my facility today and on such short notice–"

"Yeah, that's another thing," Muldoon said. "Why did you give us such short notice?"

"Well, we're in the process of great scientific discovery. In science, sometimes you have to quite literally jump to the opportunity, otherwise someone will snatch it out of your grasp. The reason why you have all been called here today . . . is because some of you were already associated with InGen in someway or another, and we believe you are some of the most experienced in your fields. I'm not sure how to break this news to you, so I'll give you a little history on the project. Dr. Henry Wu, Dr. Laura Sorkin and one of our engineers, Ray Arnold – you'll meet him a little bit later – started researching to invent a prototype. The research took about ten years to complete. Finally, they were able start building the machine, sparing no expense in the process. After many trial runs, the machine turned out to be a success. It was no ordinary invention, as it had the ability to create . . . a time portal."

There was a moment of silence among the group. Grant was confused. _A time portal . . . did I hear him right? Time travel shouldn't exist until the far future!_

Grant had to know more. "Wait, a time portal? You mean like . . . to time travel?"

"Yes!" Hammond exclaimed. "An actual time portal."

"Wait," Ellie breathed. "You're kidding."

"No. I didn't believe we'd been able to do it myself! But we did!"

Alisha shook her head to clear her thoughts. A time portal? She thought she was hearing things or something. This had to have been impossible. _I no lo creo_, she thought.

Luke was too dumbfounded to speak, unlike his father, who said, "So let me get this straight: you tested this time portal? Do you _know_ it works?"

Hammond smiled. He gestured to Claire and Dr. Sorkin. The two women walked over to a large object, about ten feet tall, covered with a black blanket. Together, they yanked the blanket off to reveal an extremely large butterfly enclosure; it was sitting on a set of four wheels so that it could be moved around. But instead of butterflies, there were two ginormous insects inside. They had large translucent wings and bulging eyes.

"Jumping crocodiles!" Muldoon gasped. The entire group rushed over to the enclosure to inspect the pair of dragonflies inside; amazed. The insects sat peacefully on the perch in their cage, every so often flapping their wings. "They're humongous! When I suggested giant circus fleas, I didn't think I'd be close to getting it right!"

"You've genetically engineered giant dragonflies?" Ellie asked.

"No," Grant said, "don't you see, they're from the past. These are from the past."

"I know the names of these creatures," said Luke. "_Meganeura_, right Dad?"

Grant nodded. "Yeah, I think so son." He turned to Henry, looking for confirmation.

"Correct. They're _Meganeura_ and their straight from the Carboniferous habitat. We didn't _mean_ to bring them back; they sort of flew through on their own and . . . it's a long story. These are the first organisms we know of that have ever time-traveled.

"I'll never look at dragonflies the same way again," Bob uttered. "What do you feed them?"

Ellie said, "I have an even better question: how did you know what to feed them? Most of the things they would have fed upon went extinct, right?"

"Well, it was kind of difficult," Dr. Sorkin explained. "We did some research on what modern dragonflies eat – mainly mosquitoes, flies, wasps, bees, ants and occasionally butterflies – and tried finding similar insects that would feed the _Meganeura_. They seem happy to feed on ants, crickets, mealworms – that was more of a wild guess – large grubs and even small lizards."

Grant was surprised. "Lizards?"

"Yes. In _Meganeura's_ natural habitat, they probably would have included small Carboniferous reptiles, such as _Petrolacosaurus_, in their diet. As we didn't have any lizards on hand, I decided to go to the local pet store to buy some mice and our insects seem to like them."

"They're beautiful," Alisha announced. "Are they going to stay in this enclosure?"

"No. We'll move them to a larger one after it's constructed. The final enclosure will probably be on the premises, because we'd like to have the opportunity to study them–"

"You won't have to kill them, will you?" Ellie asked with concern.

"Heavens no! Any type of studies we do on these creatures will be of no harm to them."

Ludlow turned to Hammond. "You should probably brief them now, uncle," he said. "I have a schedule to keep and I don't want my time spent on entertaining the team members."

"Quite right," Hammond said. After clearing his throat to get the group's attention, he said, "Alright everyone, here's your job description: if you decide to take the offer, you will be mounting an expedition – the JurassiQuest Expedition, to be precise – into the past to study and document ancient Mesozoic fauna. The first venture you're about to take is going to be relatively short, just so you can get a lay of the land and its creatures. Perhaps you'll be able to obtain precious specimens to bring back to the present for further analysis."

"So basically our job will be go to back in time and study dinosaurs?" Grant asked with much interest.

"Uh, yes, and no," Ludlow stated as he began flipping through some papers in the folder he was holding so that he could relay information to the group. "_You_ will be primarily be studying the dinosaurs; Dr. Sattler here will use her knowledge of ancient plants to study and document the plants you find in the past; Bob Gerald is going to be mapping out the geography of the area you'll be traveling through; Robert Muldoon will be making sure the rest of you are safe; and survivalist Alisha Roland's role is rather obvious."

Hammond asked, "Of course, it all depends on who's interested."

"Count me in," Alisha said with an eager smile.

Muldoon said, "Dinosaurs, huh? Well, I can't say no to that. Plus I'm getting paid to do it."

Everyone else agreed to the offer.

To Grant, this was more than just an expedition into the past – the past he'd been trying to learn more about his entire life. It was something much more. His mind thought back to the lecture he gave at the museum a few nights before when Baselton shot him down. If they could go back in time, this meant that he was able to find proof that _Velociraptors_ were intelligent pack-hunters. "Don't be like Dr. Alan Grant," Baselton had said, "the paleontologist wannabe you see standing here before you in his nice suit and pants. As much as he wishes to perpetuate his claims, there's no basis behind him. Don't be like Dr. Grant here, and you will all go far." The words sunk deep into Grant's soul. If he could find and observe a living pack of raptors, he'd finally have the much needed proof he'd been looking for to support his claims! Baselton would be forced to do nothing but eat a piece of humble pie.

As Grant was in deep thought, Ludlow glanced at Luke. "And I'm afraid your kid can't join you, Dr. Grant."

"What?" Luke asked in surprise.

"Wait a minute, why not?" Grant questioned.

"That's what I'm wondering too," Hammond said.

"Uncle, you and I both know it's too dangerous," Ludlow told him. "They're going back in time; as far as we know, no one from our time has ever been there and we don't know what dangers to expect. We don't need the deaths of people to cover our company in conspiracy."

"But we already took that into consideration," Hammond argued. "Henry, Dr. Sorkin and I have narrowed down some potential places for our team to explore, and based on the fossil record, they're relatively safe."

"_Relatively_?"

"Yes. They should be no more dangerous than a hike in the woods, where bears and cougars might be of concern."

Ludlow sighed.

"Please?" Grant asked. "My son needs this."

Luke raised his eyebrows; Grant looked back at his son and winked. His dad was actually putting forth the effort to include his son in something he was doing!

Ludlow rubbed his temples, contemplating. Finally he said, "Well, I suppose. Dr. Grant and the others are going to have to sign papers first, just in case."

"Why do _we_ have to sign papers?" Muldoon asked.

"Oh, just so that we can avoid any nasty lawsuits in case something happens. Just in case."

* * *

"Yes, Dodgson," Nedry answered, "the team members have arrived and Hammond's briefing them now."

Dennis Nedry was outside the InGen complex, talking to Dodgson on his cellphone.

"OK," Dodgson said. "Now remember, you've got to submit the technical information to me _before_ you screw up the system. Get it to me and then meet me at _Cafe Brio_ the following day."

"You can count on me, Dodgson." Nedry ended the call and decided to get back to the lab where the time portal was, as Arnold would likely be wondering where he was. But as he turned around, he bumped into a man walking past him. "Hey!"

"Oh, sorry!" the man said as he rushed into the InGen entrance.

Nedry didn't get a good look at the man, but he saw that the stranger was tall and rugged-looking, with brown hair and a lab coat. _Probably a new recruit_, Nedry thought. He went into the building.

* * *

Nedry rushed into the time portal laboratory. Walking past Arnold, who was sitting at his desk, he took a seat in front of his own computer.

"What took you so long?" Arnold asked. "Where were you? The expedition team members will be in this room at any minute."

"Oh, I was just contacting one of my friends at Integrated Computer Systems (this was where he worked before joining InGen). I had some questions about some of the equipment."

"Start warming up the machine." No sooner had Nedry started warming up the machine was a knock heard upon the door. "Come in," Arnold called.

Henry opened the door, followed by Dr. Sorkin, Dr. Grant, Ellie, Luke, Alisha, Muldoon, Bob, three military soldiers, Hammond and Dianthus. The elephant was a little cautious when he entered the room, feeling slightly frightened.

"I'm locking the door this time," Hammond said as he did so.

Now the soldiers they had with them were introduced to the group just before entering the laboratory. Their job was as you might expect to help Muldoon protect the group from harm; they were under Muldoon's command for this mission. The three soldiers were named Jack Tyson, Peter Dalton and Will Mcarthy. Will was a young soldier of 29 with light brown hair and a freckled face. He was relatively new to the military; this was his first mission. Hammond had considered the soldiers quite unnecessary, but Ludlow had insisted upon having them, just in case.

Henry said, "Everyone, this is our head technician, Ray Arnold, and Dennis Nedry, our computer programmer." Arnold smiled at the group, preparing himself to speak, while Nedry hardly made a half-hearted wave.

After everyone was introduced, Arnold said, "OK, the time portal is ready to be fired up, but I need to know where I'm sending you guys. We were wondering if you had a suggestion, Dr. Grant?"

Grant said, "Yes, I could probably think of somewhere to–"

"Wait, so you're actually telling me you have a time machine?" Will asked.

"It's a time _portal_," Arnold corrected. "And weren't you already briefed on this mission?"

"Sure, but everyone knows time travel isn't invented yet." (He wasn't around during the conversation Grant and the others had in the biology department).

Arnold continued, "We've selected some regions that would be of least danger to you. Here's the list, Dr. Grant."

He handed Dr. Grant a sheet of paper. On the paper were the names of several geological formations that represented ancient habitats:

Kayenta Formation

Upper Elliot Formation

Haţeg Island

Chinle Formation

Ischigualasto Formation

La Quinta Formation

Ellie rested her head on Alan's shoulder, also looking at the list.

"What are you thinking?" she asked.

"Well, all the habitats featured on this list lack large theropods–"

"No T. rex?" Luke asked in disappointment.

"No. No large theropods. I'm kind of leaning toward either the Kayenta, Haţeg Island, Chinle or La Quinta. All of these appear to be relatively safe places to go. Well, hold on a minute . . . Haţeg Island . . .? Maybe that wouldn't be a very good first time travel visit."

"Why not?" Alisha asked. "Where is that anyway?"

"The place dubbed 'Haţeg Island' is located in Romania, and I'm beginning to think that isn't the best choice for this mission. The fossil record reveals relatively large carnivores did live there, including _Tarascosaurus_. Most of the dinosaurs in that region were pretty small. However, there was a large predatory pterosaur – flying reptile – called _Hatzegopteryx_."

"What's that?" Muldoon asked.

"To put it simply, _Hatzegopteryx_ was kind of like a cross between a carnivorous giraffe and a stork. They had wingspans of over 30 feet, sharp beaks and were the largest predators in the region. I've changed my mind about wanting to visit this place." He looked back at the list. "How about Ischigualasto, in Argentina?"

"What should we be expecting there?" Ellie asked.

"Well, there weren't very many species of dinosaurs in that region back then. The landscape was lush and strange reptiles called dicynodonts roamed about. The dinosaurs – including the omnivorous _Eoraptor _– in the area were small, not much bigger than a medium-sized dog. There were predators in the area, like the crocodile-like _Saurosuchus_ and the theropod _Herrerasaurus_, but that's pretty much it. This shouldn't be any more dangerous than, as Hammond said, 'a hike in the woods'."

"So that's the destination of your choice?" Arnold asked.

"Yes."

"Alright then. Dennis, turn on them machine."

Dennis nodded and began typing on his computer console.

Ellie grinned eagerly at her boyfriend.

"What?" Grant asked.

"Aren't you excited? We're actually going back in time!"

"I know. I still can't believe this is happening." Grant was more excited then when he saw the _Acrocanthosaurus_ fossils in the rock a few days ago. The time portal machine was booting up, and within a few moments, they'd be able to travel back in time to see living dinosaurs! How could Grant possibly hope to put the feelings he was going through in words? It was indescribable!

Suddenly Dianthus ducked under a desk in fright as the two cylinders pointed toward the center of the contraption shot out a beam of white light, giving the dark room additional brightness. Our group gasped in awe as a ball of light and energy formed in the middle of the time portal before mushrooming into larger size. A great gust of wind rushed past Grant, nearly blowing his hat off, as the energy ball appeared to shatter like little pieces of glass. The glass-like shards swirled in the air around the orb before finally calming down. It was one of the most beautiful things Grant had ever seen.

For what seemed like a long time, no one spoke a word.

"That's the time portal?" Grant asked.

"Yes," Arnold answered proudly. "What do you think?"

"Well, I was sort of expecting more of a time machine . . . but it's beautiful."

Even the skeptical Will was nodding his head in approval. "I'm impressed."

"How'd you create it?" Alisha asked.

"Well, it's very technical," Arnold said. "It'd take me a millennia to explain it all."

"But this is some of the most technologically advanced equipment on the entire planet," Hammond said, "spared no expense."

Muldoon said, "What are we all waiting for? Let's go see some dinosaurs!"

"How do we enter it?" Will asked.

"You just walk right through it," Arnold explained.

Nedry began furiously typing something on his computer. He hit the enter button.

Grant adjusted his hat, slung his backpack onto his shoulders, preparing himself for seeing the creatures he'd been studying his entire life, for the first time in the flesh. This was an unbelievable experience for him. He clasped his girlfriend's feminine hand into his and started walking toward the time portal. He was actually walking into a distant past, a past he'd never gotten the opportunity to see until now. Slowly but surely, Grant and Ellie stepped onto the platform and into the past, not knowing what to find.

* * *

**A/N: Well, Dr. Grant, Ellie, Luke and the others are finally going back in time! I can't wait till they meet some dinosaurs. By now, some of you might be thinking this story's pretty straight forward – they go back in time, study dinosaurs, something goes wrong, they might make it back alive, blah, blah, blah. Well, let me be the first to tell you that there will be **_**a**__**lot**_** of plot twists and surprises along the way. There will be many unexpected things occurring in this story! Anyway, who's your favorite character so far in the story? Be sure to let me know via reviewing. Until next week, be sure to follow, favorite and review on this story (definitely be sure to review, my readers! I know you guys have been reading, because I can look at this story's pageviews, so please review!) and I'll see you all soon! Don't forget to spare no expense!**


	8. Dinosaurs in the Forest

**JurassiQuest – Chapter 8: Dinosaurs in the Forest**

**A/N: Sorry it's a little short, but for those of you who have been patiently waiting for the JurassiQuest Expedition to leave the 21****st**** century behind . . . your time has come! I like this chapter because it's the first one in which a dinosaur will appear! Stay tuned, because I have an announcement at the end of this chapter.**

**In response to a comment posted by Andrew 2000 (Guest): Yes, this story **_**will**_** feature raptors like the ones in Grant's theory. I don't want to give to much of the story away, but let's just say that they'll probably play a **_**huge**_** part in the overall trilogy, to which this story is part 1.**

**Please enjoy this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.**

* * *

Dr. Grant exited the time portal, stepping into a very different world – he and Ellie, who stood by his side holding his hand were now in a primordial forest, with several of the palm and cycad-like trees growing high above their heads, perhaps over a hundred feet into the air. Ferns and other small plants coated the forest floor. The calls of strange animals and insects could be heard all around them. Dawn was only just breaking, with the sun casting beautiful light beams through the trees. A light mist drifted amid the forest, casting an eerie feel on the place.

Grant breathed the cool, wet air of the forest. He nodded his head in amazement at what he was seeing – he was in the past!

"We actually did it," Ellie breathed. She laughed in disbelief. "I don't believe it!"

Luke Grant, Alisha Roland, Robert Muldoon, Bob Gerald, Jack Tyson, Peter Dalton and Will Mcarthy walked in through the time portal behind them. They were all amazed at the sights they were seeing.

"Esto es increíble," Alisha uttered. "So this is what Argentina used to look like?"

Grant nodded. "Apparently."

"That was weird," Will said, "we really time-traveled, huh?"

"Yes."

"That's mind-boggling. When I was told about my mission, I thought my leg was being pulled. Why haven't I heard of that news before?"

"It's a top-secret operation at present. They might spread the word about their invention a little later on, but Mr. Hammond has given us the opportunity to really experience this brand new frontier first."

Alisha said, "OK everyone, here's what we need to do. Firstly, we need to find a good place to set up camp. (They went over what they were supposed to bring before going through the time portal) One of the most important rules out here is to stick as a group, especially since we have no idea what this place is like. Bob?"

"Yes?"

"We're counting on you to keep an eye out for landmarks."

"Of course. I am always looking at things in my surroundings so that I'm able to create a mental map. I actually created a mental map of the InGen compound!"

"If we stick together, we should be OK. Now, I know you all already have your assigned jobs on this expedition, but I'll be assigning other jobs as well once we set up camp."

"What kind of other jobs?" Muldoon questioned.

"Basic stuff, like managing food, firewood, things like that. But that will be taken care of after we find a place to set up camp. Let's get the JurassiQuest underway!"

* * *

Using the incognito mode on his computer, Dennis clicked the _send_ button on his email account. The technical information was being sent to Dodgson and Dennis would get paid big time! Dennis chuckled to himself quietly. Behind him, Hammond, Arnold, Henry and Dr. Sorkin stood gazing at the time portal.

"You think they'll be alright?" Hammond asked.

"I'm sure they'll be fine," Arnold assured him. He glanced at his watch. "Well, I didn't have breakfast this morning and I had a light dinner last night and no lunch before that. I'm famished. Anyone coming to the break room with me?"

"Oh yes, I'm hungry too," Hammond said.

Henry shook his head. "Not me, I'm going back to my genetics labs. There are plenty more DNA samples to analyze."

"I'll be in the biology department with Claire," Dr. Sorkin said. "What about you, Nedry?"

"Oh me? I'm just going to . . . uh . . . I'll find something to do."

"Alright, shut the time portal off, will you?" Arnold requested.

The other scientists, Hammond, Arnold and Dianthus left the room. Dennis shut down the time portal as he was told and got out of his chair, stretching. _This is perfect! They won't suspect a thing!_

* * *

"Step aside everyone!" Alisha exclaimed. "Hazte a un lado!"

"Look, Ms. Survivalist," Will said, "I know you think you know what you're doing, but we're the soldiers here, so–"

Alisha swiftly obtained a sharp machete from her backpack, causing Will to leap back in surprise.

"You don't want to be on the receiving end of this thing," Alisha told him. She began to chop her way through forest flora, leading the group onward.

Luke glanced around the forest. Somewhere off to his left, a bird chirped loudly. _I can't believe I'm back in time!_ he thought. Tom was going to get a kick out of this if Luke would ever be able to tell him about it. _I wonder what a real life dinosaur is actually like. We'll finally be able to prove all those theories about them, like whether they were warm or cold blooded, or what color they were, what sounds they made, how fast they could run . . . the list is endless! Hey, maybe on our next time-traveling trip, we can go to the Cretaceous and find proof that raptors hunt in packs!_

Out of all of them, Bob looked least suited to this the JurassiQuest Expedition. In fact, his clothing wasn't much different from the clothing he wore on a normal day at the office! He walked briskly after the group with his suitcase, stumbling and nearly tripping on just about every log or rock on the forest floor.

"Could we take a break?" Bob asked. "We should, um, probably preserve our energy for later."

Muldoon stopped walking and looked back at him. "We've only been walking for five minutes! We're going to have to go much farther than that on this trek!"

"I don't know if I can handle it."

Muldoon sighed. "Listen, we've got to find a good place to set up camp before nightfall. If we don't, well, I don't know about you, but I don't want to be stuck outside at night in a mysterious place filled with dinosaurs."

"Speaking of which, where _are_ the dinosaurs?"

Muldoon started back walking again. "That's a major misconception people have about nature – they believe that when they go out in the wild, they'll find animals immediately. In most cases this isn't true; sometimes this is the case, like in the African savannah, but that's an exception rather than the norm. I believe Dr. Grant would agree with me."

"Yes," Grant responded. "I suspect that dinosaurs will be a little hard to find."

_SLASH! SWISH!_ Alisha's machete sliced through the undergrowth like a knife through butter. The roar of a strange reptilian creature was heard from a long way off.

"What was that, Dr. Grant?" Will asked, wielding his gun toward the sound.

"How should I know?" Grant answered.

"You're a paleontologist, correct?"

"Yes, but I've only studied the _fossils_ of extinct creatures. Unfortunately most fossils don't tell you much of anything about the sounds they make."

Luke glanced over at Will's gun. "What model of gun is that?"

"Oh, it's an EMD," Will announced proudly. "That's **E**lectronic **M**uscular **D**isruption **W**eapon. It's a little different from your average gun."

"Really?" Muldoon asked. "What does it do?"

"Well, it's a specially designed neutralizing taser gun with the power to take down an elephant that InGen gave us to use. It's got three settings, the strongest setting is capable of taking down an animal the size of an elephant in a few shots and as painlessly as possible. Hammond expressed interest in harming the animals as little as possible considering we're dealing with creatures from the past. Peter has one too."

"I have an ordinary tranquilizer gun," Jack told the others.

"Don't you think that's a bit much?" Ellie asked. "I mean, the animals of the upper Triassic habitat aren't elephant-sized at all."

"I like to be prepared," Will said.

* * *

After about ten minutes of walking, Alisha found a quiet creek running through the forest. She looked at her watch: it was 8:00 a.m., assuming that the time they left correlated with the time in the time period they were in. Based on the position of the sun, this seemed to ring true.

"Alisha, we should take a break here and decide what to do next," Grant said.

Alisha nodded. "Good idea."

There were several large boulders and pieces of logs around the creek, making great places to sit for a quick break.

"Alright, I'm going to start making a sketch," Bob said. He sat down and got out his clipboard, a sheet of paper and a pencil.

"What are you doing?" Luke asked.

"I'm making a temporary sketch of where we've been so far."

"You remember all that already?"

"Not everything, just the essentials. As we walked, I looked at all the trees, shrubs, ferns and rocks. That will help me understand the basics. Later, when we go back, I'll look at everything again and add that to my sketch. After I've looked at the environment several times, I am able to make a more complete map."

Grant walked over to Luke. "Hey, son," he said.

"Oh, hi Dad."

Grant took a seat on the same rock. "So, what do you think so far?"

"It's amazing! I can't believe we're back in time . . . I just wish we knew where the dinosaurs were."

"I'm sure we'll find them soon."

"Thanks for letting me come, Dad."

"No problem."

Luke got up and walked over to the creek, he stared at his reflection for a few seconds. A quiet squeak came from nearby. What was it? His curiosity kicked in; after hopping over the stream, he slowly made his way through a pair of shrubs. The squeaking sound came again just before there was a brief rustling in the trees above him. Unfortunately, he couldn't see what was causing the sound. He continued moving toward the source of the first sound he had heard.

Just then, he noticed a small animal leap out of the ground foliage about 20 feet to his left. The animal was a reptile, no larger than a fox. But it wasn't fox-like at all! It stood on two legs and bird-like feet, had two relatively long five-fingered arms, a large head with a beaked mouth, large eyes, a long tail and a slender neck. The creature was light brownish green with mottled dark brown blotches covering its body.

Luke's eyes nearly popped out of his head and his mouth hang agape – he knew exactly what creature stood before him: a dinosaur! A living, breathing dinosaur! He was breathless. _A dinosaur! I don't believe it!_ he thought.

Unfortunately, the creature stopped only for a moment to look at its surroundings before scampering off into the underbrush. The entire sequence of events only took about five seconds. _Let's see, walked on two legs, had a beak and long tail . . ._ Luke tried to identify the creature. Even though he couldn't specifically identify its species, he knew it was an ornithiscian (bird-hipped dinosaur) . . . but that was strange. No Triassic ornithiscian known to science looked like the one he saw. Perhaps it was actually an _Eoraptor_, a small theropod that does not possess a beak. Luke theorized that the "beak" he saw looked like a beak because that part of the dinosaur's face was a different color than the rest. Regardless of what it was, he'd seen a dinosaur!

* * *

"These forests," Alisha said, "they remind me of the jungles of Panama."

"Do they?" Ellie asked. "Yeah, they do look kind of like them. What do you think, Alan?"

"Yeah. They do, now that I think of it. I expected Triassic Argentina to be lush, but not _this_ lush. Perhaps on par with the forest/scrublands of New Caldonia."

The sounds of squeaking animals were heard nearby.

Will stood on high alert. "Keep looking around men," he addressed the other soldiers. "There's no telling what's out here, literally. There could be a dangerous animal lying around every corner."

Muldoon looked into the soldier's eyes. "So uh, Will, how old are you?"

"I'm 29."

"This your first mission?"

"Pretty much. I mean, I've been on minor missions before. This would be considered a major mission; I've never led a team before either."

"Ever served in remote places?"

"I served in Iraq for a couple of years."

"Well, I think you'll find survival in nature different than survival on the battlefield. Firstly, you _do_ need to stay alert at all times, but loosen up a bit. Nature isn't your enemy, it's a frienemy, a survival tool. You need to learn to grasp and take control over it. Take dominion over it. Don't let it govern and get the best of you."

"I'm trained not to loosen up, sir."

"You've been trained well, apparently. But like I said, this is different than anything you or any of us have ever dealt with. I'd suggest that it's time for you to live dangerously."

Muldoon looked at Grant and said, "You know your name sounds familiar. Where have I heard it before?"

"Well you know that I'm a paleontologist," Grant answered, "but I've been in the news a lot lately."

"What for?"

"My controversial theories on raptors, _Velociraptor_ to be precise. See, my theory is that _Velociraptor_ was a pack-hunting animal that was extremely intelligent and used complex vocal calls to talk to other members of the pack. Most scientists, specifically George Baselton, have resorted to publicly degrading my name because they do feel my theory has enough evidence to back it up."

Muldoon nodded understandably. He unscrewed his water bottle lid and guzzled away. Then he said, "I guess that's one thing you can prove now that we have time travel capabilities."

"I've been thinking about that, but I'm not sure how to get it done. You see, let's say we go back in time and observe raptors on a pack-hunt. I've proved my theory, but I need evidence to present to the scientific community. I'll think of something I'm sure. Besides, we're not in the right habitat to study raptors now. Raptors lived in the Cretaceous. We're in the Triassic."

"Alan," Ellie said.

"Yes?"

"Where's Luke?"

Grant gasped when he noticed his son was nowhere to be seen! "Oh my gosh!"

"Esto no es bueno!" Alisha said. "No aquí en el país de los dinosaurios."

"What _is_ she saying?" Jack the soldier asked.

"We need to find that boy. We need to stick together so we can–"

"Hey, dad!" Luke called as he rushed from the forest.

"Oh my goodness!" Grant said in relief. "Where did you go? Don't you remember we were supposed to stay together? This is a dangerous land, Luke. We can't just go wandering off in the middle of nowhere without the group. We were worried."

"Sorry, dad," Luke said, "but you'll never guess what I saw! I saw a dinosaur!"

This got everyone's attention.

"A dinosaur?" Ellie asked in excitement. "What did it look like?"

"It was about the size of a fox," Luke explained, "it was very bird-like in shape and body design. I was guessing it could have been an ornithiscian, but considering we're in a Triassic ecosystem, I figured it might have been an _Eoraptor_."

Grant nodded. "Where's the dinosaur now?"

"It went into the foliage over there."

"Come on guys," Grant told the group. Without another word, he rushed away from the creek.

Will shook his head. "I guess we're going with him then."

* * *

The group hurried through the forest to find the spot where Luke said he saw the dinosaur. Once they reached the location, Muldoon got down on his knees, finding what he was looking for – tracks. He grinned. "Yes, an animal was definitely here. These tracks resemble those of a bird's foot, but they're slightly different in shape." He turned to Luke. "What was the dinosaur's foot like?"

"Very bird-like."

"Alright then. It's definitely this way." He got up and led the group through some more foliage.

Grant's pours were dripping with sweat; sweat from the anxiousness he was feeling. He might be able to see his first dinosaurs!

"Wait, you hear that?" Ellie asked. Everyone stopped walking. A high-pitched squeaking and chirping sound was heard nearby. _Birds_? Ellie mouthed to Alisha.

Alisha shrugged. "I have no clue" she whispered, "I'm experienced with _modern_ wildlife."

Grant stepped ahead of Muldoon and began walking through a grove of cycads before coming to some movement 30 feet ahead of him. He gasped – the movement was from dinosaurs. The rest of the group stopped right next to Grant.

"What am I looking at?" Bob whispered.

"Right ahead of us," Grant said, "they're camouflaged."

Ahead were seven fox-sized dinosaurs that looked exactly as Luke described them. Their skin coloration blended in so well with the undergrowth that they were hard to see; not invisible, but if they stood still and quiet, they would have been almost impossible to spot. At the moment, the little creatures were foraging on the forest floor. Their beaked heads pecked at little things in the leaf-litter, perhaps insects and/or fruit like many modern birds do. The dinosaurs squeaked amongst themselves to communicate.

"They're so incredible . . ." Ellie said, "and kind of cute at the same time."

"Those are dinosaurs?" Alisha asked. "They're so . . . small."

"Yeah, most dinosaurs actually didn't get very big," Muldoon explained. "In fact, most are no larger than a sheep." Grant looked back at Muldoon, curious as to how a game warden from Kenya would know anything about dinosaurs. "What? I know a thing or two about dinosaurs."

"What species are they, Dad?" Luke asked. "I'm not sure they're _Eoraptors_ anymore."

Grant shook his head, but Ellie answered, "I'd say . . . a small ornithopod, right? Perhaps _Othneilosaurus_?"

"Too big," Grant said. "_Othneilosaurus_ is a little larger than these dinosaurs."

One of the dinosaurs squawked at something it saw amid the leaf litter. It kicked the dead leaves on the ground in front of it out of the way with its hands. Then it bent down and retrieved a large insect. The dinosaur squealed and presumed to crunch it up in its beak. Grant noticed something about the dinosaur: it had teeth in its beak!

"Hm . . ." Grant rubbed his chin. "I'm not sure what it is."

Alisha spoke up. "I heard about an ostrich-like dinosaur when I was a kid. Could these guys be an ostrich-like dinosaur?"

"No. Ostrich-like dinosaurs – ornithomimids – are similar at first glance, but they have very different skeletal features." Then Grant snapped his fingers. "I know what these are! I think they're _Laquintasaura_."

"A what?" Bob asked.

Luke winced. "Never heard of that kind of dinosaur before."

Grant smiled. "That's because it hasn't been officially named and described yet. See, this year some paleontologists in northern Venezuela discovered the remains of some small ornithiscians found in a lower Jurassic geologic layer. They're being studied at present and they've been dubbed _Laquintasaura_. They'll probably finish their analysis sometime in 2014."

"So," Ellie said, "we're some of the first humans to see a flock of fully restored _Laquintasaura_. Amazing. Wait, didn't you say they're lower Jurassic dinosaurs?"

"Yes."

"But we're in the _Tri_assic aren't we?"

Grant frowned. That was peculiar. There were no known dinosaurs like the ones they were observing in the Triassic . . . so they had to be _Laquintasaura_. So why were they here in the Triassic.

"Perhaps we've mistakenly arrived in the Jurassic rather than the Triassic. We must be in lower Jurassic Venezuela."

"Does that change the dangers much?" Will asked with concern.

"No. I mean, we haven't really discovered any large carnivores in this area. However that isn't saying much considering it was only this year they discovered dinosaurs here in the first place."

Will sighed. "Nice."

One of the _Laquintasaura_ leaped onto a large rock and made a clicking sound. It scanned its surroundings, being ever so watchful of danger. The rest of the flock continued feeding below. Perhaps this _Laquintasaura_ served as a lookout for predators; maybe the dinosaurs even took turns to guard the group.

Grant was growing more and more curious about these little dinosaurs. The fact that he was observing dinosaurs that were practically new to science was incredible to him. What was even more amazing was that he'd entered into an amazing new frontier; in the 21st century, scientists had only recently started discovering dinosaurs in this part of Venezuela and now he and the rest of his team would have the chance to learn more in a day than scientists in the 21st century would learn in ten years! This fascinated Grant.

The _Laquintasaura_ on the rock stood up nice and tall; he used his left hand to wipe off his face. Then he bent his head down to scratch it with his foot. After which he hopped off and scampered out of sight. The other members of the flock began to exit the scene. There was something graceful about the way they walked; with each step, they bobbed their heads, giving them an almost bird-like walking-style. The cute little dinosaurs walked to the edge of the small clearing and just as mysteriously as they appeared, they vanished, their unique camouflage blending them in perfectly. For several seconds after they left, the JurassiQuest team was silent.

"I still can't believe we saw dinosaurs," Will said.

"Let's get a move on, people," announced Alisha. "We need to find a place to set up camp."

"Why can't we do it here?" Luke asked.

"Predators follow herbivores, Luke," Muldoon replied. "If we stay here, carnivores might stop by later. We need to find another spot."

* * *

**A/N: I decided to add Laquintasaura to the story because I thought it would be neat to add a relatively new species of dinosaur. As the latest addition to the Jurassic Park trilogy came out in 2001, Laquintasaura would never have had a chance to be in the movie because it hadn't been discovered until 2014. I can't believe it's already nearing the end of the year!**

**Special Announcement: Some of you might already be aware that next month, November, is National Novel Writing Month. I will be taking part in the NaNoWriMo contest this year in which I'll have to write a 50,000 word novel by the end of the month! It's going to be fun, I'm sure, but I have no doubt that it will take a lot of time. So for the month of November I will be putting this story on hiatus. Don't worry though, I'm sure November should go fast and I'll be back writing Jurassic World before you know it! If you'd like to read my writing during November, you can check out my other fanfiction stories on my profile page, my blogs ( .com & .com) and the story I'm writing for the contest. Also be sure to follow, favorite and review on Jurassic World and I'll see you all again soon! Remember, spare no expense on Thanksgiving dinner this November!**


	9. Valley of the Dinosaurs

**JurassiQuest – Chapter 9: Valley of the Dinosaurs**

**A/N: Hi everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I've finished writing my 50,000-word novel for the National Novel Writing Month contest and I have returned to continue this story. As you can see, I have changed the name of this story from "Jurassic World" to "JurassiQuest" in order to avoid confusion with the upcoming movie of the same name. Plus, the new name really fits, don't you think? Speaking of the upcoming Jurassic World movie, the trailer was released a few days ago. So be sure to check it out on YouTube! In this chapter, Dr. Grant and the rest of the JurassiQuest will continue to venture deeper into dinosaur habitat! Be prepared for some more startling surprises along the way.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.**

* * *

As Grant led the group through the forest. Luke looked at the photo gallery on his cellphone. While they were watching the _Laquintasaura_, he'd taken several pictures of them. _Man, hopefully InGen will let me share these images once we get back. I could be famous if I can show these to people! I'd be the most popular kid in school...and Logan wouldn't have anything to say about it!_

"You should probably save your power on that thing," Ellie told him. "There's no way to charge it if it goes out."

Luke nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I probably should." He turned his phone off. "I probably wouldn't have brought it if I'd known we'd be here. I wonder if we'll see any more dinosaurs while we're here."

"In this dense undergrowth," Muldoon began, "anything's possible. That's why I'm always ready to live dangerously."

Ellie took everything of the forest in – the trees, the rocks, the soil, everything. "So what exactly are we looking for, Alan?"

"Well, Alisha says we need a place to set up camp before we do any scientific studies," Grant explained.

"Trust me, we won't want to get caught out here at dusk," Alisha added. "There could be all kinds of strange creatures out here that we won't want eating us. Dr. Grant, you know you're primordial time periods. Where do you suggest we go to find a place to set up camp? I know nothing about ancient ecosystems."

Grant cleared his throat. "As you'll find out, ancient ecosystems aren't too terribly different from our own. Sure the animals and plants are different, but the ecological niches they fill are exactly the same. If you want my opinion on where to set up camp, I personally don't want to be too far away from where the animals will be."

"So you want to be close to the animals?" Muldoon started. "Then that's easy. There's only one place and one place only where animals are guaranteed to gather. One place where we'll always know where to find them."

"A water source," Grant and Muldoon said together.

"Yeah, I heard something about that on _Animal Planet_," Luke said, "back when they _had_ more documentaries about wildlife instead of wild nature-loving people."

"But we don't want to be too close to the water source," Muldoon cautioned. "Predators are attracted to water sources too, because they know prey congregates near them."

Bob said, "I should like to stop soon if we can. I need to jot down some more rough sketches for my map."

"Sure, Bob," Grant said. "Right after we–"

"LOOK OUT!" Luke exclaimed, pointing behind his father.

Grant turned around to see a large insect flying his direction! He and the others ducked as an enormous dragonfly with a three-foot wingspan zoomed overhead.

"What was that!?" Will exclaimed.

"Looks like a dragonfly," said Jack. "But it's so huge!" (This was the soldiers' first time seeing the giant insects, because they didn't see them before when the other members of the team did)

"It's a _Meganeura monyi_!" Grant shouted.

Just then another dragonfly zoomed past them. The translucent wings were so large that the humans felt a gust of air as it blazed past.

"Let's follow it!" Luke exclaimed.

Without another word, everyone followed Luke as they chased after the fast-flying insect.

"Hold up, wait for me!" Bob cried, being the slowest of the group.

The dragonfly swerved from the left to the right as it dodged trees. Finally it turned and neared what appeared to be the edge of the forest, as there was much light coming through the tree trunks.

* * *

Luke was the first person to escape the dark forest and run out into the open sunlight. What he saw would change his life forever. At the edge of the forest was a rocky ledge – the way down wasn't too steep – and beyond that was a humongous prairie filled with large animals – reptiles – smudged in between tall tree-covered mountains. The prairie boasted a beautiful river-fed lake and gigantic creatures of all shapes and sizes. The largest of them all were near the treeline at the other end of the valley and had long necks and tails. The other relatively smaller animals were the size of elephants. In the skies flew dozens of the giant dragonflies and flying reptiles. Luke couldn't believe his eyes – he was looking at a valley filled with dinosaurs!

Grant came up alongside his son, followed by the rest of the team. They were speechless.

"Oh. My. Gosh." Ellie covered her mouth with her hands. "Oh. My. Gosh," she repeated.

Grant couldn't bring himself to speak. _These are actually dinosaurs! And so many of them!_ he thought. He identified the individuals with the long necks and tails as sauropods – the suborder of dinosaurs that boasted the largest land animals ever to walk the earth. The sauropods that stood in the valley below were at least 90 feet long from nose-to-tail and over 30 feet high. Their scaly hide was an elephant-like gray color. The sauropods made loud moaning-like calls to communicate with each other. There was a herd of smaller – but still quite large – dinosaurs in the valley. They each had a large frill coming out of the back of the skull and a compact, four-legged body. He recognized these behemoths as _Triceratops_. Several of them were scattered across the plains to feeding. The animals all varied in size, from a 30-foot adult, to the babies, which were no larger than farm pigs. A large _Triceratops_ emitted a loud call into the air. The other species of dinosaur Grant saw in the valley had red-colored kite-shaped plates protruding from its back and four spikes on its tails – this was obviously a single _Stegosaurus_; it was at the water's edge, quenching its thirst. Amid these larger dinosaurs, smaller herbivores could be seen. They were probably _Laquintasaura_.

"I don't believe what I'm seeing!" Muldoon uttered. "This is ridiculously incredible!"

"You guys weren't kidding about the dinosaur thing," Will stated. "They're amazing."

"Alan?" Ellie asked. "Are you OK?"

Grant nodded. Then he started laughing. "This is unbelievable! Real live dinosaurs! Big ones too!"

"Those things must weigh more than a herd of elephants each!" Alisha said in utter amazement. "Esto es demasiado! I'm utterly amazed."

"Aren't they incredible, dad?" Luke asked while taking pictures with his phone.

Grant slowly nodded his head. "Yes, they are." He wasn't himself at the moment. He felt like he'd gone back in time, not to the time when dinosaurs had roamed the earth, but the time when he was a child, living in a world of make-believe monsters and giants. But these giants before him weren't make-believe, and they weren't monsters: they were dinosaurs.

"The long-necked ones are really beautiful," Will stated, "but what are they? Brontosaurus?"

Grant shook his head, still gazing at the peaceful giants. "No, brontosaurus didn't exist." Now he knew it was time to return to his scientific mind. "I'm so used to identifying fossils, that I have to stop and think what species these dinosaurs are, since they have skin and flesh on."

The sauropods didn't carry their heads nearly as high in the air as you might expect; instead, their necks were carried out in front of the animal in a very gentle S-shape and balanced by the lengthy whiplash-like tail. The herd grazed mainly on low-growing vegetation at the moment.

"Well," Ellie said, "they're necks are carried almost directly in front of their bodies, so we can eliminate the sauropod family macronaria." Grant knew that the Macronaria family of sauropods consisted of some of the largest species of sauropods, including _Brachiosaurus_, _Sauroposeidon_, and the most massive of them all, _Argentinosaurus_, weighing almost 100 tons. Even though some macronaria did carry their necks out in front of them, they had different body proportions than the sauropods they were observing now.

"Perhaps a diplodocid," Grant suggested. "Notice the head shape. The tail ends in a whiplash. Yes, it's definitely a diplodocid. Of the species of diplodocids, I'd have to say . . ."

"_Diplodocus_?" Luke questioned.

Grant shook his head. "No. These sauropods look a bit bulkier than _Diplodocus_. I think their close relative, _Apatosaurus louisae_, would be the best identification."

"I think I know what the others are called," Muldoon said. "_Triceratops_ are the dinosaurs grazing in the plains, and the dinosaur drinking at the lake is a _Stegosaurus_, right?"

Grant nodded. "Yes."

To Grant, the herd of _Apatosaurus_ in the distance were the most awe-inspiring of the animals before him. The adults must have had legs as thick as tree trunks. He knew how big the leg bones supporting these creatures were, because he'd seen them up close several times in the 21st century. Only one leg bone was taller than Grant was. Like a herd of modern elephants, the sauropods had their snouts close to the ground as they foraged for food. The largest _Apatosaurus_ in the herd caught Grant's attention – he stood in between his herd and the lake; perhaps he was the alpha male. Or maybe sauropods lived in matriarchal societies in which the females live in herds with their young, with a matriarch leading the herd. Maybe the adult males lived on their own. Of course, Grant couldn't be sure. All he knew is that he would have a lot to learn about these amazing creatures.

"Man, InGen better let me share these," Luke said, still snapping pictures.

"This is really beautiful," Alisha started, "but we should try and find a place to sleep for the night."

Muldoon nodded his head. "You're right. This is a water source, just like Grant wanted. So we should set up camp near here."

* * *

As the incline in front of them wasn't too steep, Grant led the JurassiQuest team down the slope and into the valley below. They were walking along the edge of the lake, moving toward the opposite side of the valley's tree-line, when they got close to the _Stegosaurus_. The plate-backed dinosaur refrained from taking another gulp of water and looked up at them curiously. The humans came to a halt before the mighty creature. The enormous creature must have been the size of an elephant, but unlike an elephant, it had a small head and a long tail.

"Let's keep clear of him," Grant said. "We don't know how dangerous these dinosaurs are."

"Isn't it an herbivore?" Muldoon asked.

"Yes, but you work with wild animals? Aren't African buffalo and elephants dangerous too?"

Muldoon nodded knowingly. "Oh yes, I know very well. African cape buffalo kill more people than any other large African mammal except the hippo, if I remember correctly."

The _Stegosaurus_ clearly wasn't as aggressive as an African buffalo, but Grant couldn't keep his eyes off of the creature's tail which bore four meter-long spikes. He didn't want to anger the creature so that it would try to stab them with its tail, so he led everyone around the dinosaur, giving it plenty of space. Once they were a certain distance away, the _Stegosaurus_ continued drinking. Grant couldn't believe he had been so close to such a beautiful dinosaur.

Grant said, "This doesn't make sense."

"What doesn't?" Ellie asked.

"The dinosaurs, I mean . . . look at them!"

Everyone looked at the dinosaurs nearby. A few _Laquintasaura_ seemed to have noticed the human's arrival and quickly darted away, toward the _Triceratops_ herd. One or two _Triceratops_ noticed Grant's group as well. They stared at the humans for a while, watching their every move.

"They're dinosaurs," Will said, "of course it doesn't make sense. Does the existence of a creature bigger than an elephant walking around on land make sense? Of course not! Nothing about this whole sequence of events makes sense. Nature is confusing in general."

"No, I don't mean it that way." The group stopped walking. "When we were in the lab, we chose to go to Triassic Argentina. Somehow, the time portal sent us to lower Jurassic Patagonia, or so we thought."

"Well then what's the problem?"

"There weren't any large dinosaurs in Jurassic Patagonia! _Laquintasaura_ lived in what is now Jurassic Patagonia; the _Apatosaurus_ and _Stegosaurus_ lived in what is now the southwestern United States, in the Jurassic ecosystem; _Triceratops_ and the flying reptiles soaring above our heads are of the Cretaceous United States. Most of these creatures we're looking aren't supposed to live together, nor are they found in the same geologic rock layer. Doesn't that strike you as odd?"

"It didn't at first," Muldoon said, "because I didn't know all these dinosaurs aren't thought to live together like this."

"I guess there are a lot of things we don't understand about the primordial earth," Ellie said. "I mean, we practically just got here."

"Yeah, but we might have to question practically everything we thought we knew about the fossil record," Grant said in conclusion.

* * *

Henry Wu walked into his genetics laboratory. He hurried toward the super computers that were analyzing the DNA samples from the amber specimens. But once he reached the screens, he found them sitting idly; the screen read: **Awaiting Next Command.** Henry winced. _Wait, this thing isn't supposed to be finished till sometime tonight! If it were finished, I should have the genome of a species of extinct animal._

He figured this must be some sort of mistake. Perhaps the computer was going through some bug problems. He decided to refresh the computer, but it didn't change the computer's status. Had this computer really analyzed all of DNA samples he'd queued up? No, it couldn't be true. It would be too good to be true, to say the least. He decided to contact Arnold.

A few minutes later, Arnold came into the room. "So what's wrong with the computer?"

"It's saying that it's analyzed the entire queue of DNA samples I had prepared for it and that we have a large amount of DNA from one of the species we're studying."

Arnold rubbed his chin. He and Dennis had designed the computer to work fast, but they didn't know they could make it go _this_ fast. He knew that it was designed to analyze the DNA samples extracted from an piece of amber and after it was finished with the sample, it was supposed to see if it was the same as some of the DNA samples analyzed earlier. This way, Henry would be able to know if he had the entire genome of an animal so that he'd be able to clone it. This process was supposed to take days to complete. Arnold quickly checked the computer for any glitches or bugs in the system. He shook his head.

"Nope, the computer's running fine."

"So you're saying it went through all those DNA samples already?" Henry asked. "Wow, Hammond really _did_ spare no expense on the technology in this place. I'm going to queue up some more amber samples to analyze."

"Good. So what will be the next step for you, now that you have the large amount of the genome of a dinosaur?"

"Well, firstly, we don't _know_ if it's actually a dinosaur. But based on the age of the specimen and where it was found, it is likely to have been from a dinosaur."

"How would you know that it's likely to have come from a dinosaur?"

"Frankly, they were some of the only animals the mosquitoes would bite. Mosquitoes living in dinosaur ecosystems would have bitten mainly land vertebrates instead of sea creatures or other insects – just like mosquitoes do today. Pterosaurs and birds would be bitten as well, but not nearly as often as terrestrial creatures. The most common large land vertebrates were dinosaurs at the time they were alive."

"OK. So back to my original point: what do you do next, now that we have the DNA?"

Henry looked thoughtful. "I suppose we could start by...or maybe we could...no, that wouldn't work. To be honest, I'm really not sure. I'd have to get with Dr. Sorkin and Claire again to discuss this. See, we thought we'd have several months to figure out something. But if the computer can work _this_ fast, well, we'd best better think faster too. The next step will probably consist of inserting the DNA into the unfertilized embryo of some living species of bird or reptile. We haven't pinpointed a specific species yet."

"When do you expect to have a dinosaur?"

"Oh, who knows? However I think it's safe to say we might have one sometime within the next six months to a year."

Arnold nodded. "You must be excited."

"You bet I am."

* * *

After leaving the prairie behind, Alisha began looking for a suitable spot to set up camp. Somewhere close to the lake, but not too close. Thirty minutes of searching had passed; it was 8:39 a.m. by the time Alisha found the right spot. She had chosen a small clearing with broad overhanging cycad-like trees. From here, the calls of the _Apatosaurus_ could be heard from a distance. Not long after the JurassiQuest team reached their spot, Alisha had everyone start setting up their tents to spend the night in. Three tents were going to be shared to be used amongst the group – Grant, Luke and Muldoon would share a tent, Ellie and Alisha would share another one, and Bob and the soldiers would share their tent.

"I still think we should have used the tent I brought," Bob told Jack and Peter, who were helping him set up the tent they'd be sharing. (Will was scanning the area to make sure no danger was around).

Jack sighed. "For the 100th time, we're _not_ using your tent!"

Bob's tent was inflatable and had a solar-powered air-conditioning system. It was bulky and heavy to carry, but Bob was really looking forward to using it on this trip. Unfortunately, it didn't look like he'd be able to.

"These tents might need to be disassembled at a moment's notice," Jack told him. "We don't need to waste time on yours just so that _you_ are comfortable."

"He's right," Will affirmed from the side of the small clearing. "This is a potentially dangerous mission, not some luxury vacation in the woods."

"I went to Yellowstone a couple of years ago," Bob objected, "and the woods were no-doubt filled with bears. I used my inflatable tent and everything was fine."

"These are _dinosaurs_, Bob, not bears," Grant said, fixing up the final touches to his tent. "Well I think we did good. What do you think, Luke?"

"It's perfect, Dad!" Luke exclaimed.

"I don't know about the rest of you," Muldoon said, "but I think this is the perfect spot for camp. It's situated downwind from the lake and yet close enough to the lake so we can go and observe the dinosaurs. This is going to be great."

Alisha clapped her hands to get the group's attention. "Alright everyone, escuchen! Now that we've set up camp, we focus on the real reason why we're here." She turned to Grant. "Since there are three soldiers, we can split up into three groups. Grant's going to be studying dinosaurs, Bob needs to make maps and Ellie is–"

"Actually, I can work alongside, Alan," Ellie said. "After all, the plants I'll be studying are what the dinosaurs are eating."

"Okay. Then, I guess a couple of you soldiers can help me get firewood."

"Firewood?" Will asked.

"Yes. We'll need plenty of wood for a fire tonight. Fire keeps wild animals away in the 21st century, so I'm sure it will work the same in the past. Let's get the JurassiQuest underway!"

* * *

**A/N: Where do you think Grant's team is? Triassic? Jurassic? Cretaceous? Carboniferous? You'll have to wait to find out! I was really excited to write this chapter because it features many of the dinosaurs we'll be seeing throughout the story – Apatosaurus, Laquintasaura, Stegosaurus and Triceratops**_**.**_** Of course, there will be a lot more dinosaur species than just these appearing at various areas through the story. Before I go on, you should know that the coloration of the dinosaurs is strongly based on the dinosaur from the upcoming Jurassic World movie. So in other words, if a specific dinosaur appears in several JP films, the JW coloration is the one that will be portrayed in this story. What dinosaurs do you think will appear in the story? How do you guys like the flow of the story? Am I taking things to fast or slow? Is there enough character development so far? Hearing answers to questions such as these from you readers will help me make this story even better. Next week, Dr. Grant and the others will continue their expedition into dinosaur territory to study and make observations of the incredible creatures. Also be on the lookout for more startling surprises along the way (believe me, they've only just begun!). Until then, make sure to favorite, follow and review on my story and always be sure to spare no expense!**


	10. Mommy's Very Angry

**JurassiQuest – Chapter 10: Mommy's Very Angry**

**A/N: Today should be a very, very exciting chapter for many of you! We've got lots of dinosaurs, some dino/genetic science and even an action sequence. But first, how about a brief recap on Chapter 9: **_**the JurassiQuest team has successfully traveled back in time and encountered a valley full of giant dinosaurs. Then they decided to set up a base camp near the valley. In the present, Henry Wu was surprised that his supercomputers were able to analyze some DNA samples quicker than he thought, which could lead to the recreation of living dinosaurs much sooner than anyone ever thought. **_**Now please enjoy Chapter 10!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.**

* * *

_10:00 a.m._

Bob Gerald was walking up the side of a forested mountain, away from the valley, with his suitcase in his left hand. Ahead of him was Jack, keeping a good eye out for dangerous creatures.

"So what do you need to do again?" Jack asked.

"I need to get as high up as possible so that I'll be able to get a good lay of the land," Bob replied. "This way I'll be able to make a rough version of my first map of the area. In order to get precise measurements, I will have to use sophisticated equipment."

"OK, just don't be too slow."

As they walked up, they still heard the sounds of the dinosaurs in the valley, but in addition to them, they heard the drone of insects, the chirping of birds and the occasional squawks of flying reptiles above that couldn't be seen due to the tree canopy.

Just then Jack heard a strange whooping sound; it sounded like a bird he'd heard when he was on vacation in _ – a whooping crane. But whooping cranes didn't exist until a much later time. He stopped walking. "That wasn't a whooping crane," he said to himself. "I'm sure they didn't exist at this time in history. Must be a dinosaur. I'd better go check around the area by myself so I don't put Bob in danger." He turned to the geographer. "OK, Gerald. I want you to stay against that tree. I have the feeling something's nearby. Don't go anywhere, I'll be right back."

Without another word, Jack left; this meant Bob was all alone in the forest.

_Was that a wise idea?_ Bob asked himself. _We're in this strange jungle with a lot of strange critters runnin' around. I hope I won't find anything dangerous out here_. For some reason, the forest seemed more imposing to Bob. The prospect of being alone was making him extremely nervous. He clutched his suitcase – his only sense of security at present – to his chest. His lips were held firm and his eyes darted around his surroundings, looking for the slightest movement.

Something caught his attention from a short distance away that made him loosen up a bit – a small mound was situated underneath a large fern. Inside the mound were five or six small oval-shaped white objects. Bob was no wildlife expert, but he recognized them as eggs. This peaked his interest. Slowly, clutching his suitcase close to him, he inched toward the nest to take a closer look. The nest looked like it had been made by some type of bird. This was very evident based on the bird-like footprints around the nest.

_Well, this is interesting_, Bob thought. He placed his suitcase down on the ground and reached into the nest, picking up an egg. The egg was warm, as it had been lying in the warm bed of plant matter the nest's owner had collected. She must have taken great care to build a snugly and secure nest for her offspring. _I wonder if they're abandoned._ For a moment, Bob considered this a possibility before dismissing it. After all, he knew the mother would probably have to leave the eggs to go out and get food for herself. Bob thought he should probably leave the nest before the mother returned, otherwise she might not be happy to find an intruder messing with her babies. He placed the egg down.

A rustling in the bushes was heard behind him before a soft whooping sound reached his ears. Bob turned around. He gasped in surprise to see a small dinosaur standing ten feet behind him. It was a lightly-built theropod, standing on two bird-like legs and held its two slender three-clawed forearms clenched close to its body. It stood about 3 feet tall and stretched about 7 feet long from nose to tail. The skin of the dinosaur was a greenish brown coloration with red blotches on its back, legs and tail. But this isn't what caught Bob's surprise – the dinosaur's head bore a large mouth with sharp teeth; there were also two large red-colored crests on its head. The bottoms of the crests touched each other, so that when the animal was looking directly at you, the crest was shaped like a V. The animal hooted again.

"Oh, hello there," Bob said. "I'm not bothering your–"

The dinosaur emitted a high-pitched roar and a colorful multicolored neck frill fanned out around its neck (much like the neck frill of a modern frilled lizard). The frill rattled like a rattlesnake's tail as the animal hissed angrily. As the dinosaur charged forward with its colorful and noisy display, Bob picked up his suitcase and darted away from the nest, narrowly avoiding a black gooey substance that was shot from the dinosaur's mouth and landed on a tree.

* * *

Meanwhile, Grant, Muldoon, Ellie, Will and Luke had left Alisha and Peter back at the campsite, getting firewood, and were on their way back to the dinosaur valley. The sun was rising higher and higher into the sky above them. As they walked, Ellie began hearing the calls of nearby birds.

"Why are we hearing birds?" Ellie asked.

"Um, maybe because we're _out_side?" Muldoon answered, as if the answer was obvious.

"No, you don't get it. These types of birds have never been found in Triassic or lower Jurassic habitats."

Grant shook his head. "I don't know what's going on," he said. "We should be nearing the lake."

"Yes, it's not much farther," Muldoon told him.

But as they walked, they began to hear movement not too far away from them; several relatively large animals were moving through the forest. Muldoon got in front of everyone, making a _shh!_ sound. He bent down and grasped some grass in his hands before letting it go. It drifted between his legs and off into the breeze. Good, this meant they were downwind and the animal's wouldn't smell them. Slowly, the group crept forward, curious to know what the animals were. Finally, the JurassiQuest team spotted a dozen or so ostrich-like dinosaurs – the largest members of the group stood 8-10 feet tall and were 26 feet long. Smaller individuals – likely juveniles – were among them. They had a toothless beak at the front of their skulls, long slender necks, light body frames, long clawed arms and a lengthy tail for balance. Their legs were quite long and slender too. As the dinosaurs walked they made a squawking sound to each other.

"I've seen these dinosaurs before," Will said, "In a dinosaur book. Gah...uh, gah..."

"_Gallimimus_," Grant said.

"Are you sure, Dad?" Luke inquired. "There were quite a few species of ostrich-like dinosaurs."

Grant nodded. There were many different species of these peculiar-looking dinosaurs. Called ornithomimids, or ostrich-like dinosaurs, most were very ostrich-like in body plan and bore toothless beaks. Most of the commonly recognized species were also about the height of an ostrich. However, there were several oddities among the group – _Deinocheirus _was about 36 feet in length and had a humped back; the three-foot tall _Pelicanimimus_ had tiny teeth and a pelican-like throat pouch. _Gallimimus_ is another oddity, as it was the second largest ornithomimid known to science (second to _Deinocheirus_).

The _Gallimimus_ moving through the forest as a flock. As Grant continued to watch them, he noticed that coloration varied among the individuals – some were bright orange with darkened patterns of red and orange from head to tail; others were slightly duller, possessing a peachy color along with three shades of brown (beige, sand and tan) and their necks had dark purple stripes; the juveniles were mossy green and had white spots all over their bodies, like a fawn. The flock of _Gallimimus_ appeared to be heading toward the lake too.

"Let's follow them," Luke said.

"Yeah," Grant agreed. "Why not. I'm curious as to what these dinosaurs eat."

* * *

Bob ran faster than he had in a long time! He heard the angry mother dinosaur coming up behind him. Bob hadn't reached more than ten feet away from the nest before he turned around to see where the dinosaur was; the mother was closer than he had predicted and leaped toward him. Her frill rattled even louder than before; her hand and foot claws sprang forward in midair preparing to attack the geographer. A moment later Bob was violently knocked to the ground by the carnivore. Bob's head was terribly disoriented (he wasn't used to all this action) as he sat up, the mother theropod landed on the ground three feet away from him. She roared again, her claws clicking in anticipation.

"No, no! Please! I mean no harm!" Bob pleaded with the dinosaur.

Just then, the small dinosaur was shot with blast of electricity and she screeched in surprise. Falling to the ground, her neck frill fell limp, her mouth fell open and her tongue flopped out of her mouth. Jack had arrived just in the nick of time to use his EMD. Jack grinned as his glance fell upon the fallen dinosaur.

"Hah!" he exclaimed. "Muldoon didn't think these things would be efficient weapons, but I proved him wrong. That was only its _weakest_ setting. Yet it's so powerful that this setting can temporarily knock a small animal unconscious in a matter of seconds.

Bob placed a hand on his chest. "Thank you, sir."

The dinosaur's eyes opened and she got to her feet, flapping her frill to straighten it. She looked to her right, snarled at Jack and retracted her neck frill. She started backing away from Bob. Jack held the EMD steady and poised to shoot again if the animal decided to attack. Finally, the mother dinosaur hooted a whooping crane-like sound before scampering off into the underbrush; no doubt she was returning to her nest.

"What happened?" Jack asked.

"Well, I think I made mommy very angry. I got a little too close to her nest–"

Jack sighed, clearly irritated. "I told you to stay by that tree over there. Don't do that again."

"Sorry."

Bob got up. As he brushed himself off, he said, "Should we continue?"

* * *

"Wait, so you're telling me you've already extracted large amounts of DNA from several species of dinosaurs?" Claire asked in surprise.

Henry nodded. "Yes. Well, we don't _know _if they're dinosaurs or not, like I said before. But the likelihood is that we have dinosaur DNA." He, Claire and Dr. Sorkin were standing in the Biology Lab. Henry had just relayed his latest scientific discovery. "I couldn't believe how fast those supercomputers worked either! I thought it would take months to obtain as much DNA as we now have."

"I'm impressed," Dr. Sorkin said.

"But that leads us to this: we now have enough DNA to go onto the next stage of the cloning process."

"What _is_ the next stage?" Claire questioned.

"Well," Dr. Sorkin said, "we've successfully extracted, and apparently sequenced ancient DNA. What do you know about the DNA's identification, Wu?"

"It's definitely reptile DNA. It doesn't match the DNA of any modern reptile and certainly fits what we would expect from a dinosaur. Perhaps later on, technology will be able to isolate which genes gave the animal certain anatomical features and therefore help us identify them. But until that wonderful day comes, it looks like we'll just have to clone it and see what creature we come up with."

"Perfect. Then all we should have to do, in a nutshell, is clone and reproduce an embryo. We're getting so close!"

"But wait a minute," Henry said. Something just came to his mind. The dinosaur DNA structure was quite old, so would it not be filled with holes? It most certainly should be fragmented and therefore rendered useless. He told these concerns to Dr. Sorkin and Claire.

Dr. Sorkin frowned. "Hm, that could be a problem. Perhaps there's a slight percent chance that the DNA is not fragmented."

"I haven't confirmed that it's fragmented, but I can't see a way that it could avoid being fragmented after such a long period of time."

"Suppose we could find a way to complete the DNA structure."

Henry looked thoughtful. "Maybe. I'm not sure at this point and time. I'll take a close look at the DNA. If it turns out to be fragmented, we're stuck. There's no way we can progress any further until we find a way to complete the DNA strands."

"Hopefully it's possible," Dr. Sorkin uttered.

In the butterfly cage in the corner, the pair of giant dragonflies began to fly around their enclosure in tight circles. This was a clear indication for what time of day it was.

Claire chuckled. "Looks like it's feeding time for the _Meganeura_," she said with a smile. "Come on, Laura. Help me feed these two."

"Alright, I'm coming."

As Henry walked back to his laboratory, he only had one thought on his mind: _How do you complete a strand of ancient possibly dinosaur DNA?_

Little did he know that his question would not go unanswered for long...

* * *

The _Gallimimus_ exited the forest and dashed onto the wide open plains in the valley. Grant and the others weren't too far behind them. The herd of _Apatosaurus_ were still present; they were grazing on ferns close to the water's edge. The _Triceratops_ and _Stegosaurus_ had since left this area and were no where to be seen (_Laquintasaura_ were still in the valley however). In their place was a herd of dinosaurs Grant had never seen before in the flesh – they were the size of elephants, but they weren't shaped like elephants. These dinosaurs Grant recognized as duck-billed dinosaurs, more scientifically known as hadrosaurs. They had green-colored skin with two horizontal brown stripes extending from their shoulders all the way down to their tails. The neck also bore a little reddish coloration. The adult hadrosaurs were 13-feet tall on their hind legs (less than 10 feet when on all fours) and 33 feet from nose to tail. The most striking feature was the long bony crest extending out of the back of their heads. These hadrosaurs were also feeding in the valley, not far away from the _Apatosaurus_.

"Well, more dinosaurs," Muldoon said. "What are these ones called?"

"They're _Parasaurolophus_," Luke said.

As soon as he said that, one of the _Parasaurolophus_ made a loud sound; surprisingly, it sounded quite a lot like a B-flat played on the tuba! This triggered other members of the herd to make the same sound; they were talking to each other.

Grant laughed in amazement. For decades, paleontologists have wondered what _Parasaurolophus_ used its strange crest for. Some believed they used it to improve the dinosaur's sense of smell; others thought it was used as a snorkel for when the animal went swimming. The most common theory is that the dinosaur used the crest to make strange calls. Now that Grant was watching them, he couldn't believe that he was watching the last-mentioned theory come to life right before his eyes! Even many of the baby _Parasaurolophus_ were making the strange sound. However their call was more high-pitched than the deeper tone of the adults. The _Parasaurolophus_ were grazing on low-growing grasses and ferns, just like a herd of modern wildebeest today.

As he and the others stood at the edge of the forest, looking out over the plains, Dr. Grant wondered about the social structure of herd. Was the herd dominated by a single alpha male? Was it matriarchal? He wanted to find out. Unfortunately, this wouldn't happen quickly; he'd have to watch the dinosaurs for quite some time before he would have answers. One _Parasaurolophus_ near the center of the herd was standing on its hind legs. It was constantly looking around the plains. Grant wondered if it was looking out for–

_Squawk!_ Everyone looked up as a large flying reptile zoomed over their heads. Grant had been seeing these strange reptiles several times since their arrival in the past, but this was the first time one flew low enough for him to get a good look at it. It had a wingspan of some 25 feet, casting a dark shadow beneath itself. Luke gasped at the sight. The flying reptile bore a flap of wing membrane stretched between an elongated "pinky" finger bone, and its ankles upon which it flew. The creature had a long toothless beak and at the back of its skull jutted a tall crest.

Will swung his gun upward.

"It's OK, it's a harmless pterosaur," Grant said.

The pterosaur paid them no attention as it glided toward the lake.

"I'm just trying to be ready to protect you guys," Will argued.

"You still have faith in those EMD's?" Muldoon asked. "Those aren't going to save us from anything dangerous."

"I beg to differ!" Will said.

"I prefer tranquilizer guns myself."

"The problem with normal guns is that they have to be reloaded. This baby right here doesn't. That's what makes her unique among–"

Another pterosaur of the same species as the first flew above the team's heads, causing Will to hold up his weapon without even thinking.

Muldoon shook his head. "Relax, man," he told him. "There's no danger here at the moment. We're safe. You've really got to take a moment to breath in everything around you. You're never going to survive out in nature if you don't become one with nature...so to speak."

"I have been trained to never let my guard down."

"Good for you, if you're in the battlefield. But we're _not_ in the battlefield; unlike that situation, nature isn't always out to kill you. You can benefit from being out in nature."

Luke glanced back at the pterosaur that was flying low over the lake. "I think it's a _Pteranodon_," he said.

"Yes, I believe you're right," Grant agreed. "This is incredible. Paleontology will never be the same again."

"Can you still call it paleontology?" Ellie asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, paleontology is the study of ancient fossilized remains, so..."

"I still think this counts as paleontology. While it's true that paleontology is the study of ancient fossilized remains of extinct organisms, I think this could serve as an extension of that scientific field. This is almost like...zoology and paleontology coming together."

Just then, the sun shifted higher into the sky. It was 11:05 a.m. in the morning. The largest member of the _Apatosaurus_ herd began making his way toward the lake. His deep guttural bellows could be heard from miles away. Each footstep he made caused the ground to shake beneath him. The end of his whiplash-like tail swished around effortlessly behind him. The rest of the herd knew what this meant and they all started walking toward the lake. They moved much like modern elephants, in a graceful matter. Even from the distance Grant and the others were at, the sauropods still looked huge.

"Look at 'em go," Muldoon breathed. "They're beautiful, aren't they?"

"Yes, yes they are," Ellie agreed.

Luke got out his cellphone, taking more pictures of the action. "Man, if InGen lets me share these, I'm going to be rich!"

As the _Parasaurolophus_ noticed the _Apatosaurus_ were walking toward the lake, the hadrosaurs began to move in that direction as well. One somewhat small _Apatosaurus_ – likely a juvenile, only about the size of school bus – reached the lake and she continued walking forward until she was halfway submerged in the water. Unlike the way sauropods were portrayed up until the 1960's and 70's, this sauropod wasn't at home in the water. Based on the way she moved, it appeared that her feet were not touching the waterbed. She floated around as the rest of her herd bent their long necks downward so that they could quench their thirst. Lots of water was lapped up by the humongous behemoths; Grant could only speculate how much water these animals could drink at one sitting.

The scene was utterly amazing. Grant and the others were speechless as they continued to watch this beautiful scene from the primordial past play out before them.

* * *

**A/N: I'm sure any Jurassic Park fans reading this will easily recognize the mother dinosaur that attacked Bob Gerald as Dilophosaurus. Originally, I wasn't going to feature this dinosaur in the story at all, but hey, it's pretty cool, so I added it. Hope Bob listens to instructions next time! LOL! I didn't mention Dilophosaurus by name in this chapter because the section featuring the aforementioned dinosaur was sort of from Bob's perspective, and he doesn't know a lot about dinosaurs. Therefore, he wouldn't have a clue what species it was. Would you like to see Dilophosaurus return to the story in a later chapter? How do you like the dinosaurs and other extinct animals that have appeared so far? How do you all like the Henry/Claire/Dr. Sorkin subplot in the present? Please be sure to let me know! Grant just gets more and more confused about where and when he and the others are due to all the coexisting creatures that aren't supposed to live together. The answer to this mystery will be given...well...sometime before the end of the story. I'm not quite sure when. I like to keep my readers hanging. ;-) Anyway, if you like the story, be sure to tune in next week because nighttime is going to settle over the dinosaur valley and a new cast of (possibly dangerous) characters are going to come out at night! Be sure to follow, favorite and review on this story and I'll see you all soon! Spare no expense!**


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